Promises
by Kiha717
Summary: High School isn't easy for anybody, but for Vash Tanaka, he finds himself losing his friends just as classes begin. Not only is he abandoned by the two people he loved the most, but crying through half the test leaves him in F Class when everybody expected him to be in A Class. How is he supposed to cope when he's seemingly failed everybody around him, including himself?
1. Beginnings

_Wow, I honestly haven't been to this site in two or so years, but it's interesting to be back._

 _Just to fill you in, I'm honestly more or less just using the backdrop of Fumizuki as a school because it split up my characters in an interesting enough way to capture my attention. There is a good possibility there may be cameos from characters from the original series later in the chapters of this work, but for now at least, all I can really promise is the presence of original characters._

 _The speed of posting may vary, college tends to be consuming, although I have been working on this thing for quite a while (over a year by now) and figured maybe another eye or two overseeing it might be a little nice. Just a boost to the old self-esteem, or maybe some well deserved criticism to push me back into reality. Its age means I have more than a few chapters that only need a quick comb through to catch mistakes, but I can't promise anything when it comes to posting speed._

 _But, other than that, I thank you for taking a bit of time to look at my mediocre writing and I hope to be back soon enough._

 _xKiha_

* * *

It was a warm spring morning when Noko Tanaka set down the final box from their once incredibly crowded car. The satisfaction of finishing the first wave of moving was overwhelming as she wiped her brow. "Well then, it's finally ours." She cooed, feeling the stirring in the sling resting against her back. Without hesitation, she shifted the sling around so she could meet the heavy eyed child resting inside of it.

"Welcome to our new home," Noko practically purred as the small six month old stared up at his mother. She'd always assumed that he understood everything she told him, that he already had so much wisdom within his tiny body. "My sweet Vash."

The neighborhood was quite different from the six tatami mat apartment they once lived in, but the smell of freshly fallen sakura petals alone made everything feel so much better. Everything would be better now, surely Gerard would be happier now that there was more space for the family of three. Surely he'd be kinder now that he had all the "space to think" that he was always yelling about.

Vash began to shift around in her arms, stifling a small cry while he clenched his eyes shut. After the long car ride, it was no surprise that he'd grown fussy as a wail of hunger left his throat.

"Oh!" Noko slightly surprised by how quickly her child unraveled, the exhausted woman quickly growing distressed. "Damn it, where did I leave your bottles!?"

Vash's cries only grew louder, Noko's panic overtaking her as she quickly slid the sling back into place on her back while she scrambled towards the car and began tearing through the front, trying to locate the cooler that she'd kept in the car with premade emergency bottles during the long ride.

Vash's cries only grew louder, the sobs only making Noko's movements more frantic and unfocused. "It's okay, it's okay! I'll have that bottle to you in a moment, darling, I just need you to hold on."

It would have been so much easier if her husband was involved enough to help her.

It was only now that Noko realized just how exhausted she truly was, the cries of her son only growing more desperate which only seemed to bring tears to Noko's eyes. "I… I'm getting it, I'm trying." She sniffled.

And then the crying began to calm, Noko feeling somewhat lighter.

"It's okay, ssh, I'm sure your Mother will be with you in a moment." An unfamiliar voice rang out from behind her.

"H-Huh!?" Noko's blood ran cold, jerking around to see two women standing there, both with a stroller beside them, one of the strangers cradling her baby.

"J-Just what do you think you're doing!?" Noko shouted, wiping any signs of tears away.

The woman, clad in a rather uncomfortable looking business suit, seemed somewhat surprised by Noko's outburst, glancing down at the dark haired baby now resting in her arms. "Calming him down so you could continue your business without his crying hurting you."

"I…" Noko was stunned, this wasn't something the city born woman was used to. But surely two women with babies of their own didn't come here with malicious intent, not with how casual they seemed to be.

"You're pretty young for a mom, aren't you~?" Noko turned her attention to the second woman who was dressed in overalls with a bright red shirt underneath, hazel eyes wild. "How old are you? Twenty five?"

"Twenty three," Noko blushed.

"W-Wow, even younger!" The overall clad woman gasped. "Misae had her son when she was thirty four, you're practically a baby compared to her!"

"Chizuru!" The woman holding Vash, presumably Misae, scolded. "She doesn't need to know that!"

Noko was admittedly confused beyond belief, looking from one of the woman to the other while biting her lip. "I…"

"Oh you poor thing." Misae said, offering Vash back to his skittish mother. "You haven't even gotten a proper introduction yet. Both of us live further down the street, I'm Misae Nensho and my companion here is Chizuru Seto. It's a pleasure to meet you." Both women bowing.

"O-Oh, neighbors!" True neighbors, not like the cruel and distant neighbors she'd experienced when living in the city. "Well, my name is Noko Tanaka and this is my son, Vash." She brought herself to smile while bowing in return.

"It's great to have another mom with a baby around!" Chizuru exclaimed. "I was worried I would be stuck with just Misae! But now my little Haruhi will have another future husband to choose from and grow up with!"

"... Future husband?" Noko frowned, looking at her son before glancing over to the stroller in Chizuru's grasp, the sleeping baby girl seeming rather peaceful, long doll-like eyelashes fluttering slightly.

"Ignore her, she should know better than to plan a wedding between two infants," Misae sighed. "My Kiyotaka shouldn't be limited by anything when I want him to have all options opened to him."

"You and Shinichi aren't going to like what he becomes if you tell him he can do literally anything~"

"Oh and letting Ryota show anime to Haruhi is any better?"

"Hey! What a father chooses to do with his daughter is his business and his alone!" Chizuru shouted back, the once sleeping Haruhi beginning to open heavy lidded brown eyes. "Don't you think so, Noko?"

Misae scowled, bending down and unstrapping fourteen month old Kiyotaka from his stroller, the infant's emerald green eyes wide as they looked from his mother to the frustrated Chizuru. "Oh come on, surely Noko wouldn't want her husband to only spend quality time with their child when watching anime!"

"Er…" Noko looking from one of the women to the other.

 _I wish Gerard would spend time with Vash in general… Back before Vash, when I had… Before we lost… He was so excited about… I thought he'd love him as much as he was going to love her… I just thought maybe if we had Vash to love and raise, he'd start to love us both._

"See, she wouldn't want her husband watching anime with her baby. That kind of programming can be way too violent or sexual for children." Misae huffed.

"Well at least Haruhi will be able to appreciate the hobbies of her parents instead of being raised by boring old Misae and her busy husband." Chizuru stuck her tongue out. "But, anyways, where is your husband, Noko? Is he inside?"

 _I wish I knew._

"O-Oh, Gerard? He… He went to the grocery store so we would have fresh food in our kitchen as soon as possible."

"Gerard?" Both women blinked. "He's foreign?"

"He's American," Noko nodded. "I met him when he was studying architecture in Japan four years ago and we've been married for two now."

"An American?" Chizuru giggled. "Then why is your surname Tanaka?"

"Er… He said he didn't want his last name spoiling our first names…" At least that's what she told herself in fear of having to accept Gerard's refusal to give either of his family members the surname Taylor. The denial of sharing his last name with his son was Gerard's way of refusing ownership of their son and silently it absolutely destroyed her.

"Are you okay?"

Noko jerked, giving her attention to the two women standing beside her. "Oh… yes, of course, I'm alright."

"Well then, maybe, if you would like and your husband wouldn't mind us borrowing you, you and Vash might like to go on our daily walks with us?" Chizuru offered. "It's not super exciting, but we've found it's a nice time to decompress and get some fresh air."

 _My first true set of neighbors and they're trying to include me so quickly? It couldn't hurt, not if I could find myself with both friends and playmates for Vash. I don't want him to be a lonely child and just making these women my friends might give him lifelong friends._

"I'd love to join you both."

* * *

"Come on! If you weren't such a baby, we could have some fun!"

Six year old Haruhi Seto was a hurricane, the kindergartener clad in her school uniform currently standing atop the stone bridge leading to their subdivision. The bridge was infamous with elementary school children, having a deep enough stream underneath for most of the younger children to take turns leaping off of it and into the cold waters below. Haruhi was no stranger to "courage bridge", but her friends never seemed to want to join her.

"I'm not getting wet," Kiyotaka announced, folding his arms across his chest.

"You're just a fraidy cat!" Haruhi shouted, sticking out her tongue at the green eyed child.

"Am not! I just don't want to get sick!"

"Yeah right!" Haruhi scoffed. "Vash will teach you, because he'll jump with me! Won't you, Vash?"

Two sets of eyes turned to focus on the barely six year old little boy, his hands gripping his shirt nervously while he looked down. "I don't think this is a good idea, Haruhi."

"I've done it a million times," Haruhi boldly stated. "How could it be a bad idea? 'Sides, Mama says I'm going to marry one of you someday, so whoever jumps off the bridge first gets to be my forever husband! I can't marry a boy who won't be brave and jump!"

The boys, after exchanging glances, took a step backwards.

"You boys are so mean! You'd be lucky to marry me!"

"But I thought wives were supposed to be nice…" Kiyotaka muttered.

"So mean! Meanie Taka!"

Vash looked from Haruhi to Kiyotaka in surprise, unsure of where to look or what to say. Two strong personalities that constantly caused Vash to become the tie breaker and mediator. His brand new glasses, his very first pair, slid down his nose while he frantically tried to figure out where to look. Ah, pushing them back up felt kind of reassuring, a reminder that he'd always have at least one thing under his control.

"Come on, we're jumping off right now!"

Vash focused his attention back onto his friends, seeing that Haruhi had stepped off the ledge and was now pulling Kiyotaka closer to the lip of the bridge. The eldest of the group struggled to pull himself away, but it was pointless to try and refuse her now that Haruhi had her hands on him.

"Let go!" Kiyotaka whined. "I have piano lessons in a little bit! I can't get wet or my instructor will get angry with me!"

"Too bad, piano's boring anyways! Come on, Vash, it's jumping time!"

"I…" Vash looked from the determined Haruhi to the mortified Kiyo.

"Run, Vash, don't let her get you!" Kiyotaka shouted while Haruhi extended her free hand towards the youngest, smiling all the while.

"Come on, we gotta jump together." She reassured, smiling almost sickeningly when Vash too her hand, helping him onto the ledge while Kiyotaka shot a look of hatred towards the conflicted youngest.

They failed to notice the bicycle headed towards them.

"Let's do this!" Haruhi cried, her grip tight on both of the boys. "One! Two! Three!"

On three, Vash took the jump without hesitation, Haruhi immediately whirling around to stop Kiyotaka's attempt at fleeing at the third count. She wasn't going to allow this, shooting her hand behind his back and blatantly pushing him off the bridge, causing the child to tumble towards the cold waters below. And with both boys heading for the stream, Haruhi leapt off the bridge.

But when the splash came, Haruhi wasn't in the water.

She forced her eyes open, seeing herself just… floating over the water? No wait, somebody was holding onto her! She was lifted up and held tightly against a familiar body.

"Oh, my little Sailor Mini Moon, just what were you doing?" The voice of her doting father filling her ears as he cuddled her tightly.

"I… I was going to jump off Courage Bridge with Taka and Vash."

Ryota Seto was never the prettiest father, somewhat out of shape and rockin' the stereotypical "dad bod" with his brown hair usually unkempt and an otaku-like manner of speaking. But Haruhi clearly got the sparkle in her eyes from her father who seemed to hold his daughter in the highest of regards. He could only sigh in concern while staring down at his daughter, the look of pure innocence in her eyes making it clear that she didn't know what she was getting herself into.

"I know the local kids like to jump off the bridge, but I really don't want you to be jumping from such high places when you could get hurt."

"But I've done it before!"

"I see…"

 _This child is going to be the death of me._

It was then that Ryota remembered the child his daughter had coaxed into jumping off and the child that she'd just up and pushed off. Panic immediately set in, setting his daughter down and rushing towards the bank of the stream. Both boys had made it to the water, frantically trying to keep afloat.

"Oh, s-shit! Hold on boys, I've got you!" Ryota quickly abandoning his shoes and rushing into the cold water.

* * *

"We're home!"

Little to say, Chizuru Seto wasn't expecting to see two soaking wet six year olds along with her drenched from the waist down spouse while her daughter was completely dry. Haruhi was the only one with a smile, the remaining three consumed by shivers.

"Could you grab us some towels, hun?" Ryota sighed. "It's gettin' kinda c-cold."

"Yes! Of course!" Chizuru nodded. "Oh god, Ryota, get the boys out of their uniforms before they catch cold!"

Ryota bent down, helping Vash unbutton his blazer while his wife rushed off to get clean towels. Haruhi only glanced at her shaking friends before beginning to casually remove her shoes, Kiyotaka glaring at the girl. "If I get sick, I'll kill you."

"Hey, at least I got you to live a little. It was fun, wasn't it?"

"No."

"... A little…"

Both kids turned to look at Vash, the shaking smallest of the three lifting his head up to smile at the both of them. "I've never done something like that before. It was… It was kinda fun."

Haruhi lit up, snickering slightly. "See, dummy Taka, Vash said it was fun! And because Vash is the smartest, what he says is right!"

"I didn't have fun, Haruhi!"

"That's because you're boring!" Haruhi retorted while Chizuru reentered the room, covering the two shaking boys now stripped down to only underwear in a clean towel.

"Now then, Haruhi," Chizuru sighed, dabbing Vash's dripping hair with a fluffy washcloth, causing the small child to look up at her with trusting eyes. "You know that Daddy and I don't want you playing on that bridge. You could've gotten yourself, Vash or Kiyotaka seriously injured."

"But Mama…"

"No buts, Mini Moon," Ryota sighed, looking down at his precious child. "You've heard your Mother and I tell you no enough times for you to know not to jump off that bridge under any circumstances."

"Daddy! I've done it before I know that I can do it and I know I won't get hurt!"

"Haruhi," His voice grew stern, something that caught the three children off guard. "I'm not asking if you can do it or if you've done it before. I'm telling you that you are not allowed to play around on that bridge because eventually somebody will get hurt and I'm not going to let that happen."

"Y-Yes, Daddy."

Vash was silent, looking from Ryota to Haruhi in surprise. They were so different from how he and his Daddy acted when they were together. His Daddy never told him anything or worried about him when he did something like this.

 _I wish my Daddy would worry about me… That he would love me like Uncle Ryota loves Haruhi._

"There we are, that should feel better," Vash glancing up to look at the smiling Chizuru. She couldn't help but beam down back at him, his clearly hurting eyes melting her heart. Everybody in the neighborhood knew what was happening in the Tanaka-Taylor household, but anybody who knew the situation knew that only Noko could put a stop to this. The only thing that Chizuru, Misae or any other concerned friend could do was try to love and care for Vash and his mother when they were near them. Vash didn't know the love of his father like her daughter did and it only inspired Chizuru to love him with all her heart.

"I'll heat up something warm to help them feel a bit less awful," Ryota said, Chizuru taking his towel from him while he headed to the kitchen.

"Thanks, love," She smiled. "I'll go give Misae and Noko a call so they know we have the boys with us."

Soon enough it was just the three kids, Haruhi snickering as her bright eyes grew sinister. "Maybe tomorrow we can try doing flips after jumping off the swings!"

"No way am I doing anything with you ever again!" Kiyotaka scowled. "You always make us do what you wanna do and that's not fair!"

"Not my fault that I'm not boring like you! You wanna do boring stuff, like play board games and make us go to your dumb piano recitals!"

Vash could only feel himself smile slightly, the familiarity of his lifelong friends and their arguments bringing a warm sensation to the child. Yes, this was just another form of home. Even if Haruhi and Kiyotaka liked to argue and could be mean to each other, this was still just another form of home for the trio.

* * *

"All I'm sayin' is if he's gonna be sick, we shouldn't have to be nice to him for missing out on sports day!"

Ten year old Vash Tanaka could only sigh while Haruhi carelessly let the bento her mother made for their flu stricken third friend swing around in her arms. He felt himself nervously shift his glasses, trying to smile. "Well… I don't think he wanted to get sick. He did say he was going to beat your run time when sports day rolled around."

"Five minutes and forty three seconds, stupid Taka wasn't going to beat it."

"Don't you think you're being mean?" The two reaching the doorstep of the Nensho household as Vash nervously knocked on the door.

"Not really…" She huffed. "Why do you take his side all the time anyways? I thought I was your best friend."

"You're both my best friend."

"Nu-uh! You can only have one true best friend and there's no way it could be meanie Taka!"

The door then opened, both of the children immediately straightening themselves before coming face to face with the naturally stone faced Shinichi Nensho. He was rather intimidating, standing at a rather impressive six foot five with his own emerald eyes sharp and constantly focused on the world around him. Nothing got past the lawyer and nothing was ever going to it seemed.

"Ah, Vash, Haruhi," He nodded slowly, both of them quickly bowing.

"A-Ah, Uncle Shinichi."

"We came to bring a snack to K-Kiyotaka, if you don't mind."

A slight smirk brushed across the man's lips for only a moment. "Yes, of course. I'm sure he'd be happy to see you both."

Haruhi pursed her lips, but Vash nudged her before she could make any sort of comment. "Thank you."

The duo proceeded to take off their shoes and head into the house, Haruhi turning to look back at Shinichi for only a moment before sighing. "Jeez, I wish he wasn't so scary looking… I don't know how Taka isn't nervous around Uncle Shinichi when he's never really happy about anything. If my Daddy was like that, I'd always be hiding in my room."

Vash could only nod slightly, afraid of reminding her that he'd take Shinichi over the father he had to go home to. He knew it wouldn't do either of them good to bring it up though as the two headed up familiar stairs and down the hall to the room of their third group member.

"Dummy Taka, we brought you a snaaack~" Haruhi called, completely skipping knocking first and just opening the door. "Also, you'll never guess what my run time was~!"

"H-Haruhi, ssh…"

The little girl froze when she realized that Kiyotaka wasn't alone in the bedroom, Misae sitting on his bedside taking his temperature. She was actually in lounge wear, both of the children stunned by how suddenly casual she looked as she removed the thermometer from her child's mouth after it began to loudly beep.

"Ah, you're up to thirty eight degrees…" She sighed before glancing over to the children standing in the doorway. "Well, I guess if anybody is going to cheer you up, it'll probably be these two. You play nice with him, okay?"

They could only nod, trying to keep Misae in a good enough mood to allow them to stay in the house. She could only offer them a smile, reaching down and ruffling Vash's hair before heading out of the room.

"Wow, you really are sick, huh?" Haruhi quickly approached his bed like nothing had happened, unafraid as always. "Well, I guess you probably won't wanna eat Mama's bento that she made for you right now, hm?"

"..." Kiyotaka only turned his head away from her, turning to glance at Vash who could only offer him a slight smile while looking at the bright red cheeks and darkened eyes of his friend. "You just had to bring her with you, didn't you?"

"Hey, she always comes with… We're a team."

"Yeah… I guess so." Kiyotaka sighed, looking up at the ceiling of his bedroom. "Sorry that I got sick."

"You wouldn't have beat me anyways," Haruhi proclaimed. "I got a five minute and forty second run time, so I win."

"Maybe I'll race you… when I feel better…" He coughed.

"You can, but you won't win." She stated, crawling up onto the bed and sitting herself atop the foot. "You'll never beat me."

This felt more normal, Vash approaching the bed and climbing atop it as well as Kiyotaka propped himself up against his pillow so he could face them properly.

"I'm sure that you'll be eating my dust when I get better." He snickered, smiling to Vash slightly. "You know I'll win, don't you?"

"I…" He looked from one of them to the other. "I know one of you will… but I'll cheer both of you on no matter what."

The two children locked eyes, their glares quickly turning into nothing but familiarity and understanding.

"That reminds me," Haruhi interjected. "I've decided something important."

"Hm?"

"What is it?"

"I've decided who my husband is going to be." Haruhi said. "I'm going to marry Vash and Kiyotaka's gonna have no wife ever."

"H-Huh!?"

"W-Why me!?"

"Because you're the nicest boy here. You remind me a lot more of my Daddy than Taka does and Daddy always says you gotta pick a nice guy who treats you like your Daddy does. So I'm going to marry Vash."

"Fine by me," Kiyotaka huffed. "I didn't wanna marry you anyways."

"And that's why you're never going to be allowed to! So ha, I beat you to it."

"But I thought it first!"

"Nu-uh! I've wanted to marry Vash since I was a baby!"

Till death do them part, in sickness and in health. This was the home that they all knew and reveled in. The world they knew better than anybody else, a world where they could be understood as they truly were. A world where they belonged and could always bask in the sunshine of one another.


	2. Loss

"You look really scared,"

High school. Something that Vash Tanaka had been nervously dreading ever since he'd put on the new uniform, another time where he'd have to be put down as the kid at the bottom and possibly mistreated by any club he showed interest in. Oh well, at least the classes weren't sorted until second year, but Fumizuki chose to sort them differently than their familiar middle school classrooms.

He lowered his head, swallowing the bile that was boiling in the back of his throat as he looked up to meet the shimmering eyes of the unafraid Haruhi Seto. She offered him a bright smile, but quickly began to pout when coming face to face with his pathetic attempt to reciprocate. "Oh, come on, why are you freaking out? It's not really a big deal if things are different… Because everybody's going to be new and dumb when school starts."

"I know…" He muttered, fiddling with his glasses. The entire build up to their first year of high school hadn't made this any better, his metabolism had slowed down and he had to change around the sizes of his clothing.

Ugh, his self esteem was never lower and yet, nobody seemed to bat an eyelash at this. Haruhi noticed, but seemed more amused in the sense that she claimed it "fit him," and Kiyotaka didn't seem to think anything of it, or at least he just kinda grunted in what Vash supposed was indifference. So, maybe nobody cared about it besides himself. Well, except for…

"Then why are you upset?" She pouted.

"I mean… Things had been so perfect in Middle School." They'd all shared a class, the trio that had yet to be broken up. Sure, they were all headed to the same school, but the idea of being separated into a different class than his lifelong friends was beyond horrifying.

"Why would you be thinking about th-... Oh!"

Haruhi practically whipped around, turning to look back at her wreck of a friend, pointing directly at him with mouth pointed in a pout. "You're not going to be alone, you know I won't let that happen to you!"

"Haruhi…"

"No, I'm being serious, I'll fight the staff until they stick me in the same class as you!" She cried, mimicking slashing into something with fingers pointed to simulate claws. "That way, I can be with you no matter what~!"

She was making a scene, Vash looking around nervously as they approached the school gate. Kiyotaka had gone to school early for something, so he could already be in his classroom, knowing what they didn't.

 _I don't know if I'll manage if I lose everything I once held dear, it's a frightening idea. But everybody says once you get into High School, everything figures itself out… And I, I'm going to do fine here, because I'm adaptable._

"You've got that scared look on your face again…" Haruhi's voice was suddenly so much quieter, slipping her hand into his and holding tightly. "You know… If things were going to be bad, we would've known about it, we could've done something about it."

Vash nodded slowly, staring at their united hands. "You're… you're right."

"Of course I'm right," Haruhi snickered. "Jeez, sometimes you and Taka think you're the only smart ones, I can be smart too ya know."

Vash rolled his eyes at her teasing, not wanting to argue with her but finding a slight smile spreading on his lips. God, she said some of the stupidest things sometimes, but she was the one that kept the two men on their feet even when they were too bookish to keep her wild child tendencies amused. "Yeah, I guess you are pretty smart in your own way."

Haruhi didn't say much, just nodding somewhat stubbornly. "Of course I am."

* * *

"Look, look! Your name! That's your class!"

Vash jerked when Haruhi's voice cut through the waves of freshman trying to locate their names on the class rosters. He nervously looked around, trying to step through the waves of people he didn't exactly recognize in the hopes of keeping himself almost faceless in the crowd. He kept his chin down and his voice quiet as he approached Haruhi who was excitedly scanning through the roster.

"So, that's really it," Vash mumbled, fiddling with his glasses. "For the school year, this is where I'll be." He could feel his hand shaking slightly, biting at his lip, afraid to scan the rest of the names while Haruhi leaned in, desperate for the results.

"Look! Look!" Vash practically jumped out of his skin, Haruhi's finger darting forward and pointing to the white paper he'd been afraid to study himself. "It's my name! We're both in Class G-1!"

G, of course it had to be the only class type without grade letterings assigned to it. But at least he knew he wasn't going to be all by himself now, bringing himself to shakily smile and sigh with relief. "You are?"

"Uh, duh, why would I lie~" Haruhi was practically singing, excitement filling her. "See, I told you it would work out perfectly!"

Yeah, it was going to be okay, Vash glancing back at the paper and seeing her name printed right there, cementing her place by his side for the ninth year in a row. But… her name was the only one on the roster he recognized as a friend, some of the others were familiar and some of them brand new, but only Haruhi's name stood out as exciting.

 _Oh._

"Your face went dark again," Pouted Haruhi, voice growing whiney. "What's wrong now?"

"Kiyotaka's not in the class."

"Oh, that's all? Come on, it's no big deal if dummy Taka isn't in class with us, he's so mean anyways."

"I…" He never thought about it before, but suddenly he felt absolutely crushed. Maybe he just wasn't prepared to have the three of them split up for the first time, or maybe it was because of the sudden sinking feeling he got in his stomach when Kiyotaka was around him. Sure, he'd already figured out that his tastes didn't exactly involve women, but this couldn't mean what he thought it did.

 _No, of course it didn't._

"Hey…" Haruhi frowned. "That's not too bad, right? It'll be okay if he's not with us twenty four seven… It'll make it more fun if we get to see him a little less, because he won't already know everything we do."

"I guess so…" Vash muttered, looking down at his feet. _Maybe I'm just not ready for everything to change._

"You and Taka have been acting really weird lately." Haruhi pouted. "I know you guys are close, but sometimes I feel like something more is going on…"

"N-No…" Vash muttered, reaching up to fiddle with his glasses. "Nothing like that… You know I would've told you if something came up."

"You better remember that." She huffed. "Because I'll never forgive you if you didn't tell me something like that. I've known you both since we were babies and if you leave me on my own, I'll never talk to either one of you ever again."

Vash blinked, forcing himself to smile and nod. "O-Of course… Come on, Haruhi, you know I would've gone to you if something was happening. Especially when you probably would've known how I felt before I did."

"That's right, I would've." She snickered, grabbing hold of his wrist. "Come on, let's get to class. I want to see if I got a window seat!"

 _Surely she's noticing nothing… We haven't gotten closer, at least not close enough for him to be sending me signals, right? I… I guess I would've even know if he was gay, it's not like we ever talked about it or anything… He… He couldn't be, could he? Would that make me happy? Would he make me happy?_

* * *

There was something about cleaning duty that Vash found oddly relaxing. The smell of the cleaning fluid, how quiet the room became and just how he could lose himself in the sweeping of the floor always left him relaxed. It gave him an excuse to avoid going home right after school, something that hadn't exactly bothered him when he had things he'd rather not encounter.

Not only home, but recently, he'd been afraid to walk home from school. His cheeks would flush up, his voice would grow wavery and his heart would make his entire chest beat. Vash hated to admit it, but he was beginning to fall in love with his best friend.

A best friend who he didn't even know the sexuality of.

On a day like this where Haruhi had dance club, something she was so eager to go to that she'd left her bag in the classroom in her hurry, Vash would end up spending alone time with Kiyotaka. Sometimes it would collapse into nothing but stammering silence and other times, it would be nothing but the warm glow of somebody he adored, a feeling like no other.

The months passed as if everything was in a dream, the placement test looming over their heads and the start of a new year on the horizon as April made itself known. He should have been terrified, should have been sitting in dread of everything changing, and yet, all he felt was excitement.

But today, it was just him left in the classroom, flipping the final desk into its place on the far side of the room as he wiped his brow. It felt good, to know he could provide his best for the class. After all, the placement exams were coming up soon and he had to make himself look as valuable as possible so the class he found up in would be thrilled to receive him.

It was a relief just to have everything finished, Vash smiling to himself as he headed to grab his school bag, only to hear the door slide open.

"Haruhi? Did you come back for your bag?"

Vash turned around, expecting to see a panicked and exhausted Haruhi at the doorway, only to notice Kiyotaka standing in the doorway, his emerald eyes glued to his feet with apparent nervousness. Immediately, the shorter male stumbled back, tripping over his own feet and tumbling to the ground, smacking his head against the wooden floors in the process. "K-Kiyo!" He gasped, before groaning, hands resting on his now pounding head.

"A-Are you okay!?" The sound of feet smashing against the wood could be heard, Vash bringing himself up into a sitting position only to be face to face with a now kneeling Kiyotaka. Oh god, he wanted to collapse again, but this time in embarrassment.

"Y-Yeah… Just fine…" He groaned, holding his head. "Why are you here?"

"Well… I was waiting for you."

"Waiting for me?" Vash muttered, picking his fallen glasses up and placing them back in their place. "Why were you doing that? I told you I was the student asked to clean the classroom today."

"I-I know… I just needed to talk to you about something."

"Talk to me?" He frowned, eyes running up the frame of Kiyotaka before their eyes met. He was trying not to shudder, ears beginning to pound in anticipation. "W-What did you want to talk to me about?"

 _My best friend._

"I…" Kiyotaka glanced down. "God, this is so embarrassing."

 _A man who I've fallen in love with._

"It's just that… I… Well, there's something I should've told you before, but I never had the courage to tell anybody until recently."

 _A man who might not even be gay._

"I just need you to listen, okay? Let me say what I need to and… and if you don't like it, we can talk about that after. Promise me you'll just listen to what I need to tell you."

 _A man who I've known since infancy, who I know more than I know myself._

"I promise."

 _Who I want to keep by my side forever._

"I should have told you once I found out… I know this is sudden, but I want you to know that I… I'm gay." Kiyotaka whispered, staring into the eyes of the stunned Vash Tanaka, afraid of just what could be running through his mind. "At least, I think I am. When I'm around you, I'm consumed by all of these powerful emotions that I've never experienced before. All I can think about is if this is because I'm gay, or because I just love you. I... I'm still working to figure everything out, and you're the only one I've let in, but I knew I needed to tell you that I'm in love with you."

 _I can't breathe._

Vash was shaking, hands slipping from his head to coil around his chest, embracing his trembling frame tightly. He couldn't even look up at Kiyotaka, let alone speak or touch him.

 _I never thought I would face this._

"I…"

"Are you okay?" The sudden sound of panic in Kiyotaka's voice bringing tears to his eyes, the sensation of his hand on his shoulder sending chills down his spine. "V-Vash, I didn't mean to hurt you… I didn't kn-"

 _You really love me._

"Don't say that… I'm… I'm not hurting…"

 _This is crazy, but I need you._

Before Kiyo could even manage to ask him what was wrong, Vash knelt forward and pressed his full lips against the slim lips of his lifelong best friend. The sensation of Kiyotaka losing his breath sending shivers through Vash, squeezing his blue eyes shut tightly and trying to relax into his first kiss.

 _Show me you love me. Prove it to me._

When the kiss broke, light flooded Vash's eyes as he met the emerald irises of the taller student. He was trying not to pant, trying to sort through the shock of this situation. "I… I guess we both should've told each other sooner, h-huh?" Shaking his head before pressing his forehead to the chest of Kiyotaka. "I just never thought you might be… That my feelings would be returned."

"I just never realized what I was feeling until you weren't constantly at my side. Only after you weren't always there did I realize just how badly I wanted you to always be there."

Vash felt his cheeks light up, heart pounding in his ears. All of this felt so sudden and yet, he felt compelled to get everything he ever wanted in those moments. He couldn't stop himself, lifting his head and pressing a kiss to Kiyo's neck, running his tongue against the tender skin.

A shudder.

"V-Vash?"

"Please, stay by my side. Don't leave me. Let me have you, at least for now." He found himself saying, voice wavering in a begging tone. "Let me have you."

He'd never thought about what having Kiyotaka would entail and yet… He couldn't deny that any attention from the person he'd wanted for so long would be refreshing, comforting and… desirable.

"Is this… Is this what you want?"

"P-Please."

Vash found himself being captured in a kiss, lower lip trembling as he was quickly swept into the arms of the person he had wished would love him. His history of personal inadequacies suddenly felt lost; the abuse of his father, the body image struggles that came with finally buying that large uniform shirt, the fear that nobody would accept him as a nerdy gay kid, suddenly nothing mattered but the touch of Kiyotaka Nensho. He wanted this more than he understood, pressing himself to the fellow first year.

Before Vash could even think through it, hands were running up his thighs, eager to try and awaken the virgin frame that he'd feared to explore since things had begun to change. But with trusting eyes, he allowed himself to be explored by the person he'd known since infancy. He wanted to feel protected, to feel adored by the person he'd yearned for for far too long.

"I'll be careful." Kiyotaka whispered, gripping at the collar of Vash's uniform shirt. "I promise."

He couldn't even speak, only nodding while trying to mask the fear of his developed frame being exposed. The fear of being hated for being what he had become within the past year. No, Kiyotaka wouldn't hate him, he was going to love him. He was going to be there for him no matter what.

But as Kiyotaka removed his shirt, exposing him to the taller student, Vash was pressed into a lustful kiss. The small of his back pressed against the desks he'd previously stacked, the sensation of familiar hands wrapping themselves around his hips before tugging at his pants causing Vash to release a squeal.

"Do you want me to fuck you?" Kiyotaka whispered, biting at his earlobe.

"I-I…" Oh god, he couldn't say no. No, no, there was no way he could refuse this. "I do."

"Then tell me, tell me what you want."

Neither of them heard the sound of the classroom door sliding open.

"I… I want you to fuck me!" Vash cried out at the sensation of his neck being nibbled on.

"Vash? Taka?"

The boys whipped around, both turning to see the mortified Haruhi, her hands shaking and the usual smile plastered on her face completely gone. She looked like she might scream and yet, with her eyes darting from one boy to the other, she looked like she might cry.

"Haruhi…" Vash whispered. "W-We can.. We can explain!"

 _I'm still working to figure everything out._

"I… You two are…"

 _You're the only one I've let in._

Vash wanted to focus on her and yet, the sudden absence of Kiyotaka's touch was apparent and sudden. He turned to look at him, only to see the darkened look in the eyes of his childhood best friend. He could see the humiliation in the dark emerald orbs, the shaking of his shoulders and the doubt in his posture. "K-Kiyo?"

"I have to go."

"Wait, no, you can't." Vash stepped forward, grabbing on the warm hand that had embraced him only moments before. "Please, don't go, I don't want you to leave me al-"

Kiyotaka ripped his hand from Vash's grasp, causing the shorter male to stumble back. "Let go of of me!" His voice suddenly sharper, more militant. "This was a mistake."

"K-Kiyo, I-I…"

"This. Was. A. Mistake." He growled, turning his back to the trembling and exposed Vash. He took a few steps before facing the mortified Haruhi, the way her lip trembled making it clear that she was on the verge of sobs. "And you."

"Taka, I-I won't tell anybody! I… I didn't know!"

"You've been a thorn in my ass since our mother's brought us together," His voice was hushed, but the tone it held was stronger than any scream. "And what you've done here today, whatever it causes, is going to be all your fault. If I never speak to either of you again, it's going to be all your fault, you'll lose the both of us and when you start to reflect on it, I hope you never forget that having no friends was all your fault. You did this to yourself."

She was shaking, tears streaming down her face. "N-No… I… I didn't know… I…"

"If you weren't so damn nosy, maybe you wouldn't end up alone. But as it stands, I hope you fail the exams tomorrow and end up all by yourself." He growled, practically spitting. Without even glancing to Vash, he stormed out of the classroom, ignoring any whisper or cry for him to stop and reconsider leaving them.

Vash couldn't even look at Haruhi, trying to keep himself calm before trying to latch onto his discarded shirt, pulling it to his chest and trying not to cry. By the time he let the tears fall, he looked up to see that both of his childhood best friends had left him.

He was all by himself.

* * *

"You'll have two hours to complete the Fumizuki Placement Exam. Please flip over your papers now and begin the test. Best of luck to you all."

Vash could barely see, his eyes practically swollen shut. Locked up in his classroom and unable to even glance in Haruhi's direction while the pencil in his hand only marked on the paper under it due to the shaking of Vash's hand. His head was pounding, chest shaking with gasping breaths.

He finally felt loved, he finally felt accepted by somebody.

And now it was gone.

Was he just not worth the embarrassment? Did he matter so little to anybody that he could just be abandoned if the person felt the slightest bit humiliated around him?

Maybe he truly was as worthless as his father said he was.

He couldn't hold it back anymore, eyes blurring with tears as a choking sob fled his throat. He didn't care if he failed the test, he didn't care if he got kicked out of the high school he'd worked so hard to make sure he got into. He just wanted to feel like he mattered to somebody, to feel like he mattered and had a reason for belonging to this world. Kiyotaka wouldn't look at him and Haruhi seemed to be skittishly avoiding him.

Sobs began to bubble up, the class trying to ignore the kid they knew was going to fail the test if his emotions continued to tear him apart like they were. Nothing could be done for him at this point, or at least nobody seemed to want to do anything for him.

He was all on his own.

* * *

"And here, I present you with your class representatives for Fumizuki's second year class…

"Class F will be overseen by Vash Tanaka…"

The empty look and half smile of a broken man, that was all Vash could offer as he gazed down at the yellow Class F tie that he'd been given. Nothing about this felt right, this wasn't where he was supposed to be and yet… here he was, representing the failures of Fumizuki Academy, the students the school had let in only because they pitied them for one reason or another.

His father had found it ironic, that his son was an idiot, fitting for somebody who "didn't understand how to fucking diet" or "man up and get a girlfriend".

He deserved this. He deserved failure when he couldn't do anything good with himself.

"Class D will be overseen by Fuuko Oboro…"

"Class C will be overseen by Haruhi Seto…"

The struggle to smile was something Haruhi didn't seem to be facing as she waved her hand nervously, the green neckerchief of Class C seeming to suit her well. She couldn't let them know just how terrified she felt being on that stage, sitting beside the person she feared hated her more than anything on the planet. It took every ounce of strength within her to keep her from bursting into tears right there, the smile as tight as possible to keep every whimper she wanted to release kept inside.

"Class B will be overseen by Kiyotaka Nensho…"

Nothing. He said nothing. Emerald eyes so much colder than when he was still in his first year, his posture alert and erect and his voice gone. There was nothing to say, not when everything was so different now. He felt so terrified and yet, he couldn't let anybody know what was going on inside his head. He only straightened his blue Class B tie, glancing around the room to the sea of blue he was expected to lead.

This would have to do.

"And Class A shall be overseen by Valvatorez Salvatore…"

Nobody would even look in his direction, the fear of the Class A rep all too powerful.

"...This concludes your induction ceremony, welcome to the true Fumizuki Academy second years!"

When Vash got out of his seat, he couldn't help but notice Kiyotaka turning to glance at Haruhi and then over to him. Those sharp green irises had never been so terrifying and yet… Vash couldn't look away.

"I hope you both understand that if you even think about challenging my class, I'll destroy you with my own hands."

"T-Taka, I know you're upset but I-"

"I'm warning you ahead of time." He growled, Haruhi slinking down in fear. "I won't drop my guard around either of you, regardless of what happened when we were kids."

 _At one point, I was going to give myself to you. But now, I feel so afraid of you._

Kiyotaka walked off the stage without so much as a word to Vash, leaving the shaking Class F rep to his own thoughts.

 _I only wish you knew that even though you've destroyed me, you still have my heart. I just wish you saw forgiveness… Because I need to feel love… I need you to teach me why I'm on this planet even though I'm all on my own_

 _I need you to love me again._


	3. Class Failure

_Hey there,_

 _Okay, so I gotta explain something about this chapter before I post it, because it operates on different rules than most of the other chapters. You see, way back when, in 2014, my writing partner and I started an RP taking place in the Baka no Test universe and that was the beta version of this story. Because of this, a lot of this story has been only seen by my writing partner, and after writing the first two chapters, I went through a bit of a messy period in my life. I was more or less hitting a depression and because of this, he gave me the gift of writing two chapters of my series back in Summer 2016._

 _This is one of those two chapters, so don't be caught off guard when you notice that this has a different writing style than my own, we could technically say this chapter has been "ghost written" but if you want to find the writing, you can find him under Jac The Shadow on this website. There will be another chapter that he wrote, but I'll be sure to tell you when that specific chapter comes up, so look for it when it shows up!_

 _Alrighty, I'll get out of your hair then, I'll see you next time,_

 _xKiha_

* * *

 _"Let go of of me!"_

The alarm clock went off as Vash slowly crawled out of his bed. He slowly trudged to his closet and started to take out his school uniform. His body felt as though it was made out of lead. No matter how fast he tried to force himself to go, it felt so heavy.

 _"This was a mistake."_

A painful numbness washed over his body. From the fabric of his clothes to the carpet of the floor, he didn't feel anything.

 _"K-Kiyo, I-I…"_

 _"This. Was. A. Mistake."_

"..."

He didn't hear anything. He could see his mother's mouth moving and he he knew she was speaking to him, but the glasses-wearing school boy couldn't comprehend anything.

 _I'm all alone..._

"No thanks." Vash mumbled as he walked past him. Despite his mother's concern, Vash simply brushed it off and kept walking as he made his way to school.

 _"You know that I'll never hate you."_

Vash blinked as he looked over his shoulder. Instinctively, he felt that someone was behind him. Whether it was a human reflex or just expectation, he wasn't pleased to see someone else running past him when he expected Haruhi to be reaching out for him.

 _I'm...all alone._

Vash felt as though he was even heavier than before. For as long as he could remember, he always had Haruhi or Kiyotaka walking beside him on his way to school.

What was this feeling without them by his side?

Depressing.

Painful.

Heartbreaking.

He only stopped that line of questioning when he felt the cold glass of the school door on his palm. He made it to school-he didn't think he'd make it, but he did.

He felt his feet click across the school ground as he slowly made his way to his class. He heard murmuring and mumbling as he walked by, but he never raised his head to look at them. He didn't care about who they were talking about or what. It was all just noise in his ear.

 _I'm all alone._

Class F. 'Class Failure' as he used to call it, but now he was calling it 'Hell', because that's all it was to him: a living hell.

He took a deep breath as he rested his hand on the wooden door. This wasn't where he belonged and it wasn't where he wanted to be. Not this classroom, not this school-not even this part of the country. He tried to push the door open, but the knots in his stomach kept him from moving forward.

He pushed up his glasses to try and ease the burning in his eyes as-

Burning?

It was then Vash noticed that he had been crying. He wasn't sure when, but his face was wet and his eyes felt puffy and tired. It was the first thing he felt all day and it was just his teary face.

The chubby student looked at the clock. He still had some time before class started, so now was a good time to try and clean his face.

Vash removed his glasses as he turned the faucet on. He splashed the water on his face as he, for the first time today, started feeling something that wasn't painful. As he self soothed himself, Vash tried to push away those negative thoughts, despite how tightly they clung to him.

 _"This. Was. A. Mistake."_

Was it a mistake? Maybe. Maybe everything that was that day was a mistake. Allowing his lust to control him-no, allowing his feelings to control him.

Maybe opening his heart was a mistake.

Maybe relying on his friends was a mistake.

As he finished washing his face, he dried it off and put his glasses back on. He started to walk to the door.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Vash felt his heart stop when he heard walking outside the bathroom. He wasn't just hearing steps. He was hearing a voice.

Kiyotaka.

He waited. Waited until he was sure that he was out of earshot before slowly opening the door to make sure it didn't creak.

He saw him.

He was walking away, most likely to his own class. He didn't know just who was with him, but it didn't matter to him.

He just saw Kiyotaka. As Vash slowly stepped out of the bathroom, the chubby student felt conflicted. Should he approach him or let him walk away? Should he try to say something or stay quiet?

He took a step out of the bathroom as he fumbled over his feet.

Then Kiyotaka turned his head.

They saw each other. They were some feet away, but they stared directly into the other's eyes. Vash opened his mouth to try and say something, but he was cut off by the sudden scowl that curled on Kiyotaka's face. Vash couldn't help but flinch and step back as Kiyotaka turned back around and started walking down and took his turn.

 _"I hope you both understand that if you even think about challenging my class, I'll destroy you with my own hands."_

Vash felt his body shake as he looked back down at the ground. He felt his chest burn like it was on fire and the burning in his eyes. He could feel himself about to cry again.

 _...No..._

Vash balled up his fist as he tried to suck it up. With fists tightened and lip being chewed on, he took a deep breath.

 _I'm not...going to keep crying all day._

His fist uncurled as his fingers fixed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. Tears were still threatening to fall, but Vash managed to resist the need to curl up and drown in them.

 _You've already destroyed me once..._ He thought to himself as he started back for his own class.

 _There's nothing more you can do to me. There's nothing more he can do to me._ He told himself this over and over again.

He didn't believe he could convince himself. Or that he could just magically change over night. But he was going to try.

As he reached back to his class, he threw open the door as everyone looked to the door and saw their representative walk in.

"Hello Class F..."

 _I have nothing left to lose._

"I hope you're ready for a productive year."

 _I don't need them. Haruhi. Kiyotaka. I don't...don't need either of them_.

It was pretty shocking-if not inspiring-to see the confident look on Representative Vash Tanaka's face.

Even if all it was was a mask to hide the aching in his chest and crestfallen look on his face.

* * *

It's been 1 month. 1 Month since Vash made stole his resolve and one month since he told himself that he'd pull himself together and would change.

So far, so good. He's been, for the most part, able to keep up a strong face in front of his class.

Vash sighed as he looked at his most recent test, faintly smiling at the A that was on it.

"Seems a bit of a paradox..." mumbled Vash as he looked at his grade. "Someone in Class F getting an A? Sounds ridiculous..." he mumbled as he looked at the rest of his class. While some seemed to be doing...okay-at the very least, some of them were making passing marks if by nothing but the skin of their teeth-others were actually starting to make some progress.

"I did it! I did it! I got a C!"

"Ah, sweet! I passed!"

"Representative Tanaka's notes helped us once again!"

Okay, they weren't Einsteins, and their grades-and stats-weren't as high as his, but some of them were improving.

"Oh God, why me!"

Vash jumped from his chair from the sudden screech as he slowly turned his head to find the voice.

"I failed...again..." mumbled one of the three students who sat there, groaning as she stared at the F that was on her paper.

"Yeah, me too..." groaned another of the three, a male student who put his head down and sniffled.

"I can't believe it! We studied twice as hard as everyone else!" cried the last male student, who was also the largest of the three of them, biceps threatening to tear from his sleaves.

Vash groaned as he listened to their screaming. He turned his head back and tried to ignore their whining when a thought occurred to him.

They were part of his class, whether he liked it or not. That meant that if he was ever going to really challenge the other classes-or protect his class from the unlikely event of being attacked, even the weakest of his rank would need better stats. Meaning better grades. Meaning, this was his problem.

"Didn't I give copies of my notes to you as well?" Vash asked as he got up from his chair. Even if he didn't think much about the rest of his class, he'd never be able to win Class Wars on his own.

"Yes..." whimpered the girl, "But they didn't help us at all!"

"..." Vash took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose, "How could they not help? They were easy to understand." Vash's look was easy to read: he was starting to think they didn't even try.

"H-hey...man, come on. We really did try!" the guy said, "Nothing clicked though!"

"There's no point in trying anyway..."

Vash turned to the larger student, his associates even looking to him.

"Why should we even bother? We're Class F. As in 'Class Failure'. We're just flunkies and dropouts anyway." He said as he slumped down onto his old desk.

"H-hey! Matsusuke!" cried the girl, pulling on his arm, "D-don't say that! We can totally pull this around. We just need to work thrice as hard and-"

"I'm dropping out."

A dead silence engulfed the area around the three. Even Vash could feel it as he adjusted his glasses.

"Matsusuke!" cried the smaller male, "Y-you can't do that! What happened to our dream of all going to this school! We're all supposed to be in this together!" he snapped at his friend

"Yeah! We all worked hard and saved to go to this school! You can't let all that hard work go to waste?!" cried the girl as she clung to him, "You're not alone, do you hear me?!"

Vash felt a pain in his chest as he clenched his shirt where his heart would be.

 _You're not going to be alone, you know I won't let that happen to you!"_

 _"Haruhi…"_

 _"No, I'm being serious, I'll fight the staff until they stick me in the same class as you!" She cried, mimicking slashing into something with fingers pointed to simulate claws. "That way, I can be with you no matter what~"_

"I just...can't do it..." sniffled the larger student as he looked at his associates, "Koto...Mio...I'm sorry. But I'm not...I'm not-"

"As your class representative," Vash interrupted as he walked closer to the three of them, "I refuse to allow you to quit either."

"EH?!" All three of them looked at Vash-having almost forgotten he had started talking to them to begin with.

"But...but I'm no good..." Matsusuke mumbled, "I'm not smart like you...or anything. I'm not good enough for-"

Vash put his hand on his shoulder, "I don't know you. Or your friends. But this is still a High School. It's too late for you...for anyone to have to start over now. If you leave now, you're breaking the bond you have with your friends. You don't want to lose them, trust me."

 _What's gotten into me...?_ Vash though to himself. It was one thing to wanna help these guys, but he was pouring his feelings all over them-like something's been building up for weeks and it was finally coming out.

"Look. If the three of you are willing to put in the work and not give up on it-even when it gets hard-then I can and will help you pull your grades up."

"WHAT?!" cried all three of them.

"A-are you seriously?!" cried Mio.

"Thank you! THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!" squealed Koto as he cried his eyes out and clung onto Vash, who blushed pretty hard from the sudden contact.

"You...think you can really help me?" mumbled Masusuke as he began to dig around in his bag, retrieving his test.

"I..." Vash fiddled with his glasses, "I know I can." He took a quick glance at his test as he saw the 12/100.

 _Oh fuck me..._

* * *

"We did it! We got through our makeups!" cried Vash's Followers-they might as well had been, the three of them followed and hounded Vash for tutoring so much that he was practically their new 'fourth member'.

"I told you I'd pull those grades up." Vash smiled to them. _You barely got those C's from the skin of your teeth..._ he thought to himself. He was a little bitter since his weekend was spent teaching others History and Science, his least favorite subjects. So...why was he smiling then?

 _Am I...having fun?_

"It's thanks to you, Vash!" smiled Masusuke as he sniffled, "If it...if it wasn't for you, I would've given up by now!"

"Yeah!" nodded Koto, "Thank you so much!"

 _Are they...my friends?_

Vash put a hand on his chest. The pain that he's been feeling for so long...was gone. He stopped waking up at night with red and puffy eyes ever since he met these guys.

 _But...can I really open up?_

He clenched his shirt. No, no he couldn't do that. He just...he just couldn't. He wasn't ready. He didn't wanna feel that pain again.

"You coming, Vash?"

He snapped back to reality as he looked at Mio.

"We're all gonna go get some Ramen! You wanna come, right?"

"...Sure." Well, he could open his heart to them a little bit, right?

As the four of them headed for that ramen place, Vash looked across the street.

 _Haruhi._

The two of them saw each other, both their eyes looking into each other. it lasted a few seconds, but for them, it looked like an eternity. Vash looked ready to take a step to her, her lips parting as if trying to call out to him.

But he stopped. He turned around as he and his group headed away from her.

"Hey, was that Haruhi Seto? Class C's rep?" asked Mio.

"Yeah, I think it was!" Koto nodded, "Vash, do you know her?"

"...No. I don't." Vash mumbled as he kept walking with his group.

"Really? It's just that, the way you looked at-"

"Koto. Just drop it." Vash said, giving his own glare at him as Koto-and the others-flinched. It was the first time any of them really saw Vash angry-annoyed, sure, but never angry.

 _I don't need her...I don't need Haruhi. I don't need Kiyotaka. I don't need either of them._

"...Sorry. Let's just...drop it." Vash said as he tried to ease the newly made tension, "It's nothing, really."

 _I won't let them hurt me again._


	4. Class B and C

_Hey guys,_

 _Just a reminder that this is not one of the chapters penned by my writing partner, there is only one more of those and that'll be coming out after this one. Other than that, feel free to enjoy!_

 _I'd love to hear from anybody who is reading if you have the time, reviews or questions/comments/critiques are always valued! They help me grow as a writer and well, you can never grow too much! Thank you so much, I really do appreciate it._

 _xKiha_

* * *

Today was the day she had been dreading, a bitter sort of day where getting that Fumizuki uniform on felt like signing your death certificate. Nothing about this felt right and for Haruhi Seto, staring into the mirror that morning felt like a stab in the gut. Something about the green of her Class C neckerchief made her skin crawl, nothing about this was supposed to be happening.

She felt like she'd fallen though a worm hole, woken up in another universe entirely and couldn't escape.

Ever since seeing Vash and Kiyotaka in the classroom after hours, she'd refused to leave the house, dissolving into tears if Chizuru or Ryota even thought about mention the boys. She could never get past the first word, not when all of this had been… had been her fault. The last thing Taka had said to her continued to ring in her ears while she rested the neckerchief over her uniform shirt, lower lip trembling.

"I did this…" She whispered, trying to keep the tears from taking over her once more. She knew if anybody knew she was crying, there would be too many questions to answer, too many chances to accidentally make everything worse. "I deserve this."

She'd never felt so lonely or scared and the realization that she'd finally have the chance to see the boys again made everything worse. She had thrown up last night thinking about it and now… now she could barely think.

Trying to steal her nerve, Haruhi grabbed her school bag and headed downstairs, blinking repeatedly to try and dull the pain of her dry eyes. Everything was going to be okay, no more crying, she had a class to oversee now. She was the face of Class C, she had to reassure them that being smack in the middle of the grading curve was alright. She had to be strong.

"Good morning, love," Ryota looked up from his paper to see his only child, eyes softening when he noticed how strained her once sparkling brown eyes were. Nothing hurt more than seeing his child tear herself apart, but he knew that only she could decide when they were allowed to know. "Excited for your first day?"

"I… I guess." She muttered, grabbing a glass and taking the water pitcher from the fridge.

"Your mother and I are very proud of you, being the representative for a class is a great accomplishment." He found himself saying, trying to bring a smile to her face. "We know you'll be a great leader."

She couldn't hide the sob in her throat, setting the glass and pitcher back and wiping her eyes. "I… I know I should smile, but I'm so scared."

"I wish you'd tell us why you're hurting so much, you know we only want to help you through hurt."

"I…" She sniffled. "I just can't…" Not because she didn't want to let him in, but because she could barely think about it, she could only imagine how impossible it would be to verbalize what happened.

The clock chimed in the background, snapping Haruhi to attention as she reached for her bag with a trembling hand. "I need to get going, or else I'll be late." She whispered, abandoning the glass and pitcher without a thought. "Bye, Daddy."

"Haruhi, don't you want something to eat before you go?"

Knowing she'd probably end up vomiting at some point in the day, she could only shake her head, trying to fake a smile. "It's okay, I'll just grab something on my way to school."

"A-Alright… You be safe, okay?"

"Okay." She smiled slightly.

 _I wish I could promise you that I'd be safe and happy… But, I've never felt farther away from happy and suddenly… I feel like today will be the hardest day of school I've ever had to go to._

* * *

He hated it, the way the blue looked when he finished knotting the tie. Nothing about the sensation of this new uniform felt correct when he thought about the class of strangers that would be looking up to him. People that didn't know him.

People that he didn't want to know him.

Kiyotaka Nensho had never felt more frustrated and yet, something about heading to school today left him feeling empty.

Sure, he was more alone than ever. His parents worked internationally and were almost never home with him and ever since… that… he hadn't seen the only two true friends he'd ever had. But at first, the isolation had been welcomed, nobody could place him in a situation he couldn't control and he was constantly reminded that at least he couldn't be forced out when he wasn't ready.

Only Vash was meant to know, not Haruhi. Once she knew, then everything would spread like wildfire without his control and he just… That wasn't what he wanted to happen. Not if he couldn't control everything about it.

And now, this meant that he had to push everybody away.

Vash, Haruhi, everybody was shoved away before he could even think through his actions. He'd wanted him so badly and yet… something about this outcome felt so necessary when his bubble of control was popped and he was left without a solid plan to guide him.

He could barely look himself in the mirror and admit that he was gay. If people knew, if they could just walk around freely knowing things he barely understood about himself, he'd crumble under his own weight.

Gathering his items for the first day of the school year, Kiyotaka took one last look at himself, seeing the markings he bore that his childhood best friends wouldn't be wearing for this school year. His eyes were darker now, devoid of the life that once flourished within them, replaced with the fear that consumed him every moment of his day.

"I suppose this is where it was meant to go…" He found himself whispering, surprised at the sound of a voice, even if it was his own. The silence had become so familiar that he was dreading the bustling sounds that would come with the crowded second floor of Fumizuki.

He didn't know if he'd manage through the day, but being the representative for the B class meant that attending class wasn't so much an option as it was an obligation.

Holding his school bag tightly in his hands, Kiyotaka headed down the stairs of the empty household, locking the door behind him and making the isolated walk down the road towards Fumizuki Academy.

* * *

When Kiyotaka reached the school, something immediately became wrong. Waiting near the B Classroom was a tall and tanned man clad in the striking red of Class A, the man straightening himself when noticing the B representative approaching his classroom.

This was Valvatorez Salvatore.

"Good morning, Kiyotaka," The moment that refined voice filled Kiyo's ears, a chill ran down his spine. He and Valvatorez had been classmates the year prior, but they'd held a silent rival like grudge against one another since it became clear that both of them were gunning for the placement of A rep. What a joke, for Kiyotaka to be wearing the blue of B instead. He was going to use his first name just for that, to show Kiyo that he felt no inclination to use respect for a man who he felt hadn't earned being his equal when he wound up in B instead of where he should've been if he was going to be a true rival.

Not quite being in the mood for this, Kiyotaka could only feel himself stifle a growl when locking eyes with the man. "What do you want?"

"Oh, nothing major. Just to borrow a moment of your time."

Taking a step back, he could only sigh. "What about?"

"I want to ask you about your intentions this year." Valvatorez said. "Come on, let's take a walk. I doubt you'd like to discuss your plans within an earshot of your new classmates."

Trying not to make an enemy right out of the gate, Kiyotaka could only try to squeeze some of the hatred and disinterest out of his voice. "Alright…" Taking Valvatorez's lead as the two of them began wading through the crowd of nervous students as they sought out and filed into their new classrooms.

This probably wasn't going to be a conversation he wanted to have, but there wasn't much of a choice.

"So when you talk about my intentions, what do you want to know?" Kiyotaka found himself asking as Valvatorez peered at the Class C door.

"Well, naturally, your being in the class directly under me makes you the biggest threat. Whether or not you intend to fight is something I think you'll need to properly consider, because no matter what way you look at it, A is always going to have more resources and assets than B is going to and I fully intend on destroying everything that even considers setting itself in my path."

Make enemies? Kiyotaka couldn't help but snicker, lowering his head slightly. "You think I've already set myself on the warpath?"

"I heard it, Kiyotaka."

"Excuse me?"

"I heard what you said to Tanaka and Seto after the announcements for class representatives, that you fully intended on destroying either of them if they ever thought about challenging you." Valvatorez said, smirking at the sudden shock in emerald green eyes. "And from what I understand, there was a time where you were incredibly close with both of them. What caused that change, hm?"

"You'd be wise to drop it." Kiyotaka growled.

Valvatorez rolled his eyes, seeming to smirk about something he noticed happening behind Kiyotaka's shoulder. "Whether or not you'd like to talk about what turned you against Tanaka and Seto, what you need to understand is that I'm not going to tolerate that kind of mentality. If you even consider waging war against me, I won't hesitate to destroy your class and any ally that you might have. This school system is a game and I fully intend on winning."

Kiyotaka felt a growl bubble in his throat, but he chose to say nothing about it. "Is that all you wanted to say?"

"Clearly somebody isn't at his best, hn? After all, that blue doesn't suit you, it demeans you."

"... I need to get back to my class." Kiyotaka muttered, intending on leaving the situation only for the sound of somebody stumbling and hitting the ground, his impulse to inspect the situation overtaking him as he turned around.

Reddened blue eyes hidden behind black rimmed glasses, a softened face stained with the aftereffects of tears.

A scowl overtook his face at the realization of the weakness that had consumed somebody so much better than what he was living now. That yellow looked horrid on him, unfitting and ugly and yet, something about it made Kiyotaka's heart ache.

 _"I won't hesitate to destroy your class and any ally that you might have."_

Suddenly he was so unable to care for him. The fear of being so publicly outed causing his head to pound while the realization that any misstep with Valvatorez could put somebody who mattered so much more than Kiyotaka himself did was beyond horrifying.

He scowled to try and conceal his true feelings, turning his back before his own set of emotions to surface to the top and show his weaknesses to both the man he feared and the man he was so desperate to try and protect while also guarding himself from him.

Nothing about this was right.

Everything about this hurt.

If only he understood why it had to be this way, about why he was so terrified of himself that he had to close up on everybody.

 _I can't let Valvatorez destroy everything. I'll keep away. I'll protect us all… If only you could ever forgive me for everything someday and understand that every moment where I deny myself of what I can't accept, I'm tearing myself into shreds. Maybe someday you'll come to understand why… but only if I can ever understand it myself._

* * *

 _Alright… this is it. I walk in there, say hi and try not to… try not to cry about how lonely I am. I can do this, so got this. So not going to just bawl._

When Haruhi slid the door leading into her classroom, the only thought on her mind was how she could keep herself from bursting into tears. "Good morning Class C~" She brought herself to purr, mostly to try and hide the wavering quality of her voice.

When she walked in, placing her bag at her desk in the front right corner of the classroom, she couldn't help but notice all eyes were on her. Unfamiliar eyes who all seemed to expect more out of her even though she had absolutely no idea what to say. She'd never really been the leader type since she'd run on impulse her entire life.

"I… Uhm…" She blinked nervously. "Well… I'm, uhm, Seto Haruhi and I'm a second year… but so are all of you so I guess you knew that. But I… Uhmm, I like anime. Sailor Moon is actually my favorite thing ever and… I…" Her voice trailing off as she looked from student to student.

 _They must think I'm so stupid! I have no idea what to say!_

"Are you okay?"

Haruhi jerked, turning her attention to a female student who only managed a slight smile when getting the rep's eyes on her. "Excuse me?"

"Are you okay?" The student repeated. "You look like you're going to start crying and I'd be happy to help if you need it."

Trying not to sniffle anymore, Haruhi tried her best to put on a brave face as she shook her head. "N-No, I'm going to be fine… Just some jitters is all. It's going to be alright."

"Don't push yourself," The student, Ai Mitsuki, said gently. "We all know it's a little scary to be the leader, don't we?"

She nudged a sleeping male student sitting next to her, the boy snapping to attention as his green eyes shot open. He frantically rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his throat. "Ugh, what is it now!? Is class starting!?"

"Mitsuo," Ai sighed, shaking her head in frustration. "The rep is here."

"Seto is here!?" The guy practically screamed, causing both Haruhi and half the class to jump in surprise. He jerked around, trying to lock eyes with the stunned representative, his face igniting red and attempting to climb over his desk to approach her. "Seto! Haru-chi! I've loved you ever since I first laid ey-"

Before he could even get over the desk, Ai stood up and nabbed his tie, swiftly pulling him off of the desk and causing him to fall, completely missing the chair and landing on the hard floor. "Damn it, Mitsuo, act your own age!"

 _This cannot be the kind of class I'm going to be in charge of… There's no way I'm equipped to handle something like this._

"Well… Er, it's nice to meet you both." Haruhi muttered nervously, glancing to the twitching Mitsuo from time to time while Ai sat at her desk, her anger written all over her pouting lips. "But I suppose since the teacher's going to be a little bit late, I should go over the class roster and get to know each of you."

But as she headed to the teacher's desk to get the roster, the Class C door practically shot open, smashing into the stationary part of the door and causing the entire room to shake.

"I'm not late!"

Little to say, the student in the baseball uniform hadn't expected all of the eyes in the class to suddenly be locked on him. His panting quickly turned to embarrassed laughter as he took a step backwards, questioning if he should just go home and try tomorrow.

"Are you in Class C?"

He couldn't help but turn his attention to the soft female voice that covered up his nervous laughter, seeing the C rep and lowering his head. "Y-Yeah… S-Sorry about being loud, but I was worried I was going to be late and I didn't know what to do but run…"

Haruhi could only snicker. "Are you kidding, that was great! Best introduction I've seen so far!"

Mitsuo grunted from the floor while the baseball player couldn't help but blush slightly. "Ah? You think so?"

"Mhmm~!" Haruhi beamed. "So, who are you?"

"M-Me?" He couldn't even look at her, his heart pounding slightly for a reason he didn't understand at all. "I'm Yusuke Kobayashi."

"Well, Kobayashi, I'm going to be your class rep, Haruhi Seto."

 _This is the Seto everybody was talking about? Well, she doesn't seem too ditsy and she's kind of cute. Maybe this won't be so bad after all._

Yusuke could only nod, heading to take the free desk that he'd call his own while Haruhi began going through the roster. The more names she called, the less stressed she felt. Sure, this wasn't where she'd wanted to be, but she was finally feeling like she might manage to do this by herself.

Not that she had much of a choice, because she'd put herself in this place. It was all her fault.

* * *

"Good morning Class B."

The entire room went silent when Kiyotaka entered the classroom, the lack of students whispering to one another painfully obvious. Everybody seemed to be so beyond on edge as they peered at the man the class had been dreading an encounter with.

"They say that Nensho turned against his own friends."

"I heard he's going to use us to take out every class there is so he can sit at the top."

"Did you know he's always by himself? His parents are hard workers, so they're never there for him."

He was going to take this class under his wing. He was going to guard them with everything he had.

Looking over the class, there wasn't much to say about them as nervous eyes tried to avoid his gaze while a few students seemed unafraid, looking back at him mostly to gage just how much of the class's perception of him managed to be true.

"Excuse me?"

Without missing a beat, a student stood from her desk. With sheer blue eyes and tied back black hair, the unafraid look in her eyes almost scared Kiyotaka himself. "I want to understand your intentions for this year."

It was Valvatorez all over again.

"My intentions?" Kiyotaka mumbled.

"You're not going to go crazy with power, right?" Another girl stood herself up, tugging at the arm of the boy sitting beside her and forcing him to stand up. The resemblance was immediate, if not for her long hair and bow, he'd have assumed they were one person. "You're going to be careful and not make everybody our enemy, right?"

 _Everybody's beginning to see me as a monster only looking for fights._

"Of course not," Kiyotaka said, setting his stuff down on the top of his desk. "I know that I recently… soured… the school's perception of myself, but I give you my solemn vow that I'm going to take the Test War system incredibly seriously. I don't intend on picking on Class F because they're weaker than us and I don't plan on fighting Class A unless we're forced to do so."

"You better promise us!" The female twin huffed. "Because I'm not going to fight for somebody who only puts war first!"

"Neither will I!" Her brother shouted, although he only seemed heated because his sibling was.

"...I'll fight alongside you, but only when you prove to me that what you're fighting for is worth it." The first girl to speak said. "I'm Mei Fujioka and I'll fight only when you've given me a reason to fight."

"When the time comes, I'll be glad to do that." Kiyotaka muttered. "But for now, I'd rather we not focus on the past or test wars. The first month is a safe period, so there's no point in worrying about what cannot happen. We'll discuss war when the time for war has shown itself, but until then, we should focus on school."

While the twins looked at each other worriedly, Mei could only nod, sitting herself down at her desk. From the way she looked at him, it was clear that she was willing to put her trust in him right until he breached this unspoken contract.

"Now then…" Kiyotaka scanned the roster, looking for the matching last names. "Kato, both Rin and Ruki, would you both sit down for me?"

The both of them sighed, but took their seats anyways, Rin slumping back while Ruki fiddled with her pencil. They were probably going to be a little bit harder to convince, but Kiyotaka was sure he'd be able to win them over if he just pushed them a little bit. He could convince this entire class, he was sure of it.

After all, this period of isolation could only last so long before everything went back to the way it used to be, right?

* * *

In a flash, that first month had passed by as each class began to reach a pattern, a swing of things that they could call their own. And naturally, it seemed that the tensions that had once filled each classroom had begun to disappear.

"Alrighty then, let's see~" Haruhi smirked as her teacher handed back her math test, a subject she wasn't exactly great at. Eagerly, she pulled at the paper, flipping it over and seeing the B resting atop. "I did it!"

Only then did she realize that she'd stood up, looking around the room to the pairs of eyes all focused on her. However, the smirks and giggles that seemed to fill the classroom only made her blush further, the entire room already too familiar with her antics to be surprised by this behavior.

"You did wonderful, Haru-chi, I'm so p-" Mitsuo's potentially long rant being cut off by Ai pulling him back into his chair, the man grunting in the process. Everybody knew by now that Ai's unrequited love for Mitsuo only made the violence more severe and even more frustrating that the only person who didn't realize Ai's feelings was Mitsuo.

"Don't worry about him," Ai sighed. "Good for you though, Haruhi."

She nodded nervously, realizing she should probably sit down and nervously taking her seat. Then again, class would be over any minute, so sitting down probably seemed like a strange move, but nonetheless she slowly inched into her seat, swinging her legs slightly until the class bells chimed.

Quickly students began filing out, while Ai, with Mistuo in nervous tow, approached the sitting rep. "Hey, Haruhi, there's this new bakery opening up and Mitsuo and I were going to go check it out, would you like to come with us?"

"Of course!" She beamed, then turning to see Yusuke from the other side of the room, the baseball player packing up his bag. Well, she did like having him around, hell he felt like her second in command. "Kobayashi! Hey!"

The teen jerked, turning to see Haruhi waving from the other side of the class. "Er, yes?"

"Do you wanna go to a new bakery with Ai, Tada and I?"

Ai snickered slightly while Mitsuo's jaw dropped, the baseball player's lips curving into a gentle smile. She sure was a loudmouth, but he knew there was good intentions behind her naive and sometimes childish personality. "Is it okay with Mitsuki and Tada?"

Haruhi turned back to the other two, Ai nodding slowly while gripping Mitsuo's arm tightly, squeezing it hard enough to prevent him from vocally disagreeing with her, the rep then turning around and nodding to Yusuke.

It sounded good, to have a little shred of normalcy in her life. After all, after everything had collapsed in on itself with Kiyotaka and Vash, it was kind of nice to know that she could still fit in with somebody or a group of people. Ai, Yusuke and Mitsuo had been so open to getting to know her and there was something about it that left her feeling involved and comfortable.

Sure, she still yearned for the attention of those she'd known since infancy, but it was nice just to still belong somewhere. She still mattered, not everything was her fault.

"Let's get going." Ai said, walking out of the classroom while Haruhi finished packing her school bag.

"Right behind you."

* * *

"Alright, so do we all understand why most of the class missed this problem?"

Kiyotaka Nensho was holding an after school study secession and he would rather be anywhere else. Little to say, the understanding of Calculus in Class B wasn't exactly the strongest and having to teach it himself wasn't anymore exciting than the subject itself was.

Whenever his eyes fell onto the page all he could think about was the past.

Calculus felt like Vash, felt like everything he chose to dedicate himself to and everything he loved about the world. It felt so aggravating, to be teaching his classmates about a subject he barely felt qualified to explain when he knew that Vash could easily lecture the faculty on the topic.

A single hand shot up.

"Nensho? I still have a question about the problem?"

Oh joy, he knew that voice, that familiar stammer.

It was Dulcine Inoue, a classmate of his that he wasn't exactly a fan of. Always to herself, Dulcine was a nerdy thing who seemed to stammer through every sentence she spoke to him, along with not ever being able to make eye contact with him no matter how hard he tried. Not only this, but if anybody in the class was looking to hear gossip, you'd go to this nosey little thing because she never failed to have all of the answers one would look for.

"Yes, Inoue?" He took a few steps closer to where she was sitting in the second row, his lips curling into a frown as he watched her get smaller in her desk the closer he got. "What are you struggling with?" Peering over her shoulder to see her notes, only to find a lack thereof. He felt absolutely baffled, trying not to snap at her and instead pressing fingertips against his forehead.

"W-Well…" Her eyes were focused completely on her paper. "A-A… All of it…" She muttered. "I just… I just get so confused."

"Weren't you listening to anything I just said to the class?"

From the row behind her, Ruki and Rin began whispering to each other, snickering. This only made Dulcine squirm, sinking further into her chair while hiding her face in her hands.

"I-I was… I was trying to listen… I really was."

He could only try to nod, trying not to erupt in a fit of frustration at her borderline incompetence. "Inoue, you do understand that the school is no longer a safe zone, right?" She nervously nodded. "Any day now, Valvatorez could decide he wants to put all of us down a peg and we'll be his first target. If we have anybody dragging their heels through the classroom, it could spell an easy victory for him."

"You'll make us lose!" Ruki chanted.

"We'll never forgive you!" Rin called.

Kiyotaka jerked, turning to face the two who quickly silenced themselves, before turning back to the now whimpering Dulcine. "You don't want to be the student that we all have to guard, do you?"

"N-No," She whispered. "I don't want to hold you or the class back."

"Then I need you to pay attention. I'll go over that problem with you after the study secession, but you need to start paying me more mind when I'm going over the test." Turning his back to her and heading back to the projector.

"B-But, N-Nensho?"

Sigh. "Yes, Inoue?"

"You don't really think Class A will go after us, do you? Salvatore won't just attack us out of the blue, will he?"

 _"I won't hesitate to destroy your class and any ally that you might have. This school system is a game and I fully intend on winning."_

"I don't know what he's planning… All I know is that I'm going to prepare you for anything he might be considering. That way, even if we're outnumbered and afraid, we'll still have a chance."

"It's just a shame we're all on our own." Ruki said. "If we had other classes to back us up, Salvatore wouldn't even think about touching us. Nobody would."

"We don't have that option," The rep muttered, trying to keep his hands from shaking. "We're alone in this game, nobody to rely on and everybody to worry about."

"Does it have to stay that way?"

"I wish it didn't have to… But there are things I cannot control in this world and those things are the strongest. We've got no choice, being independent of the other classes is the only thing we can do to insure our safety."

The only thing he could do to keep Valvatorez from going after Vash.

* * *

"It's over here, this way~!"

Haruhi nodded as the bakery quartet headed to the crosswalk leading towards said bakery, Haruhi's smile quickly vanishing when she noticed another quartet standing across the way. All of them clad in Class F yellow, she couldn't help but notice the black hair and thick black framed glasses.

Vash.

For only a moment, she could look into the blue eyes she'd known since infancy. See how the light that had been in them only seconds before suddenly faded, her teeth sinking into her lip. She wanted to cry out, to beg him to listen to her for only a second, to apologize until she couldn't breathe.

But when she opened her mouth to speak, he turned away, his group looking over him before they disappeared down the way, leaving Haruhi with her confused mob.

"Er, Seto, is something wrong?" Yusuke muttered. "You just stopped…"

She couldn't speak, lowering her head and trying not to let tears form.

"Haru-chi?"

"Haruhi, what is it?"

"Seto, did something happen between you and the Class F Rep?"

Only Yusuke's voice broke through, causing Haruhi to seize up, her eyes wet with tears. "Please, Kobayashi, can we talk about something else?"

He came into her line of sight, lip curving into a concerned frown as he reached forward to wipe a tear from her cheek. "Are you hurt?"

"I don't want to talk about it." She cried, the tears only getting worse as Yusuke boldly embraced her, the girl beginning to cry into his shoulder. "I c-can't! I… I did it, it's my fault! All my fault!"

Naturally, not understanding a word of what she meant, caused poor Yusuke to feel completely lost as he only held her, running his free hand against her hairline. "It's going to be alright. No matter what happened before, you've got us, don't you? Mitsuki, Tada and I aren't going to leave you on your own."

 _I'm not doomed to be alone. But I miss you both more than words can explain._

 _I just wish you'd both look at me, listen to me._

 _Understand me._

"You're not alone, Haruhi." Ai said, shaking her head. "These guys and I are gonna stick with you, don't doubt that."

"We'd never let anything bad happen to my Haru-chi!"

She reached up to rub her eyes while Yusuke let her go, looking up at the smile on his face as she finally felt the sensation of belonging for the first time since second year began.

She missed those she loved with all her heart, but at least she knew she'd never be all on her own.

She could belong right here.


	5. Class War: A vs F

_Hey guys,_

 _So this is another chapter that was penned by my writing partner (and this is the last one) so please forgive the slightly different writing style. Now this one does talk about a few things that will be more elaborated on in the next chapter (Class C's War with D and why Valvatorez wanted what he wanted) so you'll just have to wait for what to come out sometime next week._

 _Other than that, this chapter does have a bit of a violent moment within it and I'm very sorry about that, however I think it just kind of illustrates the point that this school is a bit of a messy place and sometimes, teenage boys are gonna think with something else other than their brains. I don't condone violence, I'm a pacifist, but my views don't always mean my characters agree with me._

 _Other than that though, I hope you guys are having a wonderful week and I hope you enjoy the chapter,_

 _xKiha_

* * *

"So you're sure you can handle this test?"

Vash's eye drifted from Mio, to Koto, and finally Matsusuke as the four began to walk back to their classroom as the lunch hour came to an end. The Class F Rep adjusted his glasses as he looked at his three classmates, all of which were at the bottom of the barrel-even by his class's standards.

"We're completely sure!" smiled Mio, the girl holding up the folder Vash had handed to them the week prior, "We've been studying your notes nonstop!"

Okay, so they were certainly improving at the least. And as far as company goes, they were pretty good friends. It brought a smile to Vash face as he said, "Good. If you three have been studying, then-"

His voice cut itself off when he met the eyes of Valvatorez Salvatore. The representative of Class A's mouth pointing into a scowl as he looked over the quartet, seeming to take a moment to look each of them over.

"O-Oh my God, S-Salvatore?" Whispered Koto nervously, biting his nails.

"What's he doing here?" Matsusuke, pulling up his collar to poorly hide himself, "You don't think he's here to pick a fight with our class, do you?"

"I doubt it." Vash said, all three looking at the calm glasses-wearing student, "He has no reason to. He'd probably see it as a waste of time."

The three could pick up the venom dripping in Vash's voice, it seemed so odd when coming out of Vash's soft face. It was like when they talked about Haruhi some time ago. Did he know Valvatorez as well?

No, there was no way he knew Val.

"That's reassuring." Mio mumbled, dripping in sarcasm, "But hey, if we're not getting attacked by someone so powerful, I guess that's good."

"Y-yeah, I wouldn't wanna fight with Salvatore." Koto nodded shakily, "Even if our stats have gone up, the last person I'd wanna test them on is Class A's Rep."

"Good." Vash grumbled with a nod of his own, taking off his glasses and running the frames against his shirt to remove smudges, "But you shouldn't worry about Valvatorez. He wouldn't ever wanna mess with us He'd get nothing really out of it."

What Vash failed to notice was who he was surrounded by, his words being caught by Dulcine Inoue, whose mouth slowly gave way to a smile as she continued her walk back to B Class.

* * *

"Oh my God, we actually got 100s!" gasped Mio, Koto, and Matsusuke. The trio lifted their papers up in the air as the rest of the class gawked. While the entirety of the class had passed the test, it was still so shocking to see someone other than Vash actually get 100s.

"Congratulations." smiled Vash warmly, "I'll admit, I did not think you'd do this good."

"It's all thanks to you, Vash!" smiled Mio, "There's no way we could've done it!"

"Really, it's not like I took the test for you." chuckled Vash, blinking when the muscular Matsusuke picked him up in a crushing bear hug, tears rolling out of his eyes.

"THANK YOU TANAKA-SENSEI! I-I WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BUILD UP MY GRADES LIKE THIS WITHOUT YOU!"

"M-Matsusuke, please, I can't breath..." Vash hissed as Mio and Koto pulled their large friend off of their Class Head. Once Vash caught his breath, he managed to say, "As I was saying, I didn't do anything but give you the tools to succeed. You guys did all the real hard work. So, congratula-"

The door was suddenly kicked down, splinters of the already taped together rectangle spilling onto the ground. All of the class shifted their attention to the gaping mouth of their classroom, the sound causing Vash's blood to freeze over. He slowly turned his head around as he saw someone that brought the entirety of Class F hold their breath.

Valvatorez Salvatore.

The lanky student walked in, his hands tightly gripping the school's newspaper with an iron vice, like he was the grim reaper holding his scythe. His brown eyes were alight, as if he was nothing more than a human furnace, lip curling at the sight of Vash.

Vash swallowed the nervous spit building up in his mouth as he straightened his Class F tie, "Salvatore. Is there any reason you're disturbing my class?"

"Oh yes." Valvatorez grew a smirk which got Vash to flinch. Just as he assumed, he was scared. He feared him. "I just wanna talk to you about this." Valvatorez handed him the newspaper that was clenched in his fist.

"A newspaper...?" mumbled Vash, grabbing the school's paper as he looked at the front page.

'Class F Rep Calling out A's Salvatore'

 _'But you shouldn't worry about Valvatorez. He wouldn't ever wanna mess with us He'd get nothing really out of it.' -Vash Tanaka._

Vash's glasses nearly fell off of his face as he stared at the paper, feeling a sudden pain in his chest. He slowly looked back up at Valvatorez, who had a maniacal smirk on his face as he stared at Vash with eyes alight.

"I've been wanting to do this for quite some time..."

"Y-you cannot be serious!" Vash sudden shouted, all of Class F astonished to seeing Vash lose his cool, "L-listen, that quote is taken out of context! I-I would never-"

"I don't care." Valvatorez's face melted into a scowl, "As the leader of Class A, I cannot allow someone of a lower class to talk down to mine without consequences. If I let this slide, then other Classes will assume I am weak. And a man in power never refuses a challenge.."

"Nobody is thinking that! Nobody here would ever think-"

"I, Valvatorez Salvatore challenge Class F to a Class War."

* * *

"You what?!" Kiyotaka Nensho was less than pleased as she shot a sharp look at Dulcine. He was mad. Very mad. The school's newspaper was in his hands and it was being shredded by his fingers. There was an almost frost to his eyes, constantly moving fingers refusing to stay still for a second and yet, somehow she felt like they'd be trembling if he gave himself pause.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" cried Dulcine, covering her face as she half expected the angry Kiyotaka to strike her. A hit that she'd find not coming, but the gossip was too scared to realize that.

Kiyotaka felt fury come over him as he threw the shreds of paper in the garbage, where he figured it belonged. He took a deep breath as he tried to compose himself.

He knew that if Valvatorez saw this, he'd come after Vash without a second thought.

Vash.

Why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut?

He was sure Vash was smart enough to know F Class stood no chance against Valvatorez, but that quote-if it really did come from him-would certainly bring a seething A Rep to his door.

"But, uh, Nensho?" Kiyotaka looked back at Dulcine as she spoke, "I mean, why is this such a bad thing? I-I mean, Class A is coming for Class F, not for us."

"..." Kiyotaka's fists tightened as he tried to compose his answer. That chill overtook his eyes once more, a sight that brought Dulcine to shrink all the further into her chair, she must've said something wrong to make him so mad. "That's my business, Inoue."

Her lower lip was trembling, the B student unable to even look at him as she got up from her chair, turning her back to the man. Her hand cupped itself over her mouth, fighting back a whimper in fear of making him all the angrier.

"Inoue."

"...Yes?"

"I hope you have been studying."

There was something almost sinister about the way he said this, a chill running down her spine. She couldn't even begin to imagine what this was supposed to mean, and yet, she nodded anyways.

* * *

It was in the middle of the day during break as Haruhi groaned. She leaned on her desk as her mind started to wonder to other places.

Her class had gotten through a Class War with Class D. A surprisingly hard fight, but the victory was secured. With Class D defeated, the only class who'd have a motive to attack her would be Class F.

"Vash..." mumbled Haruhi. Her heart ached, unable to forget the day when she saw Vash in the street. She called to him, and he ignored her. It was some time ago and it was still tugging at her chest. She wanted to tell him sorry, for whatever she did if she hurt him. She wanted to ask him why he'd walk away from her.

She just...just wanted her boys back.

"...Class War..."

When the words hit her ears, Haruhi sluggishly got her head off her desk, "Huh? Class War?" she mumbled to herself as she tried to focus as she rubbed her eyes.

"Yeah, there's definitely gonna be one with Class F and Class A."

That woke Haruhi right up. "Class War?! What?!" She turned to the two talking, Yusuke and Ai as she immediately looked over to the two, who were pretty surprised to see the anxious look overtaking her face. "What are you talking about? What about Class A and F?!"

"H-Haruhi, calm down." Blinked Ai, holding out a hand in an attempt to help her calm down. "We were just talking about the next Class War."

"Class F and A! Why are those two fighting?!" Haruhi asked, her voice continuing to raise in volume and pitch the longer she remained without a true answer. "What's going on?! Why didn't you tell me about this?!"

Yusuke reached over and handed her the school newspaper, "We thought you knew..." He said, the baseball player showing her the headliner. Haruhi skimmed it over and looked appalled at what she was reading.

No. No no, this wasn't happening!

Why was this happening?!

"Uh, Haruhi? Are you okay?" asked Yusuke nervously, "You look kind of..."

"...Yusuke. I need to ask you something..."

"A-anything, Haruhi."

* * *

The Class F door was barricaded with desks and cabinets and whatever else the classmates could get. Vash adjusted his glasses nervously as he tried to brace himself.

Luckily his classmates didn't understand he did the glasses thing because of just how scared out of his mind and not to look badass.

His sweaty hands grabbed the walkie-talkie he'd "borrowed" from the staff closet, awkwardly clearing his throat before pressing the button. "Tanaka to Izuhara, have they broken through the checkpoint?"

"Izuhara to Tanaka. We've been able to pick off their forces with hit and runs. They have not gotten past checkpoint." answered Mio.

It was quite the ingenious plan if Vash said so himself. With Mio, Matsusuke and Koto all being his 'Captains' leading small squads of students, they'd jump single members of Class A, using hit and run tactics to pick off members of Class A. No matter how high their scores were, their combined smaller stats gave them a fighting chance in 5 v. 1 fights. It was a number's game and Vash made sure he had everything in his favor.

Vash released a sigh of relief. Maybe if they played this right, nice and slowly, they'd make it out of this Class 'Guerrilla' War.

"Uchimura to Tanaka! We have a problem! We have a serious problem!"

That was Matsusuke! Vash immediately turned on the talkie. "Matsusuke?! What's going on?!"

"H-he's really here! It's Salvator-" Static. The remaining students in Class F room were panicking and Vash was just as scared.

"Ahem! Everyone calm down!" shouted Vash, feeling his own heart pounding inside of his chest. "It's just...one person. Everyone, in position!" With the remaining 9 other students getting their Summonings into position, it was nothing but a waiting game. Waiting for Valvatorez to walk through that door.

His voice was wavering, glancing down at his Avatar before forcing himself to properly find his voice, a hushed whisper leaving his lips as everybody in the classroom began to brace themselves for their final line of defense. For the only thing he could think of that might be able to stop Valvatorez and give F Class a fighting chance.

"10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1."

The door was forced open despite the barricade before it, Valvatorez panted as he walked in, "Was a barricade really-"

"0."

All ten Avatars assaulted Valvatorez's. With fists, guns, blades, and whatever else they happened to be equipped with.

And all ten, Vash's included, was swatted away effortlessly, the Rep's being the only one that wasn't defeated, even if it was only holding on by a meager ten points.

"Necessary." chuckled Valvatorez as the various Class F students who once stood by his side began to flee the room, only leaving the two Reps.

It was just him and Valvatorez.

Vash stared in horror was he backed away, the taller student clapping his hands and walking towards the beginning to cower mathematician. "Bravo. Bravo, Tanaka. You actually put me through a bit of a workout with your little squads. I actually had to get out of my chair and do something myself. Congratulations, you actually had me get my hands dirty." His smirk curled into a scowl, "You, once again, make things so much harder for me."

"Heh heh..." Vash choked out a nervous laugh, his heart beginning to race in his chest, the student halfway to a panic attack. "I-I guess somethings don't change huh?"

"Yes, some things don't change." Valvatorez walked closer, his movement making Vash take another step away. "Only this time, Seto and Nensho will not protect you." Vash's back pressed into the wall of the classroom, swallowing back bile as he realized there was nowhere else to go. "And don't try acting tough and saying 'you don't need them to protect you.' I can smell your fear."

"L-look, Salvatore! J-just what do you want?! Is this really because of some stupid newspaper quote?!" Vash's fear turned into a biting snap.

Valvatorez chuckled, "Of course not. That was just an excuse to start this war." He stepped closer, "The truth is, Tanaka, is that you and Seto have kept me away from _MY_ Nensho for too long. Nensho doesn't belong in that horrible Class B, he belongs with me, by _MY_ side in Class A! A beautiful man like him, someone strong and smart, should be with me and me alone! Not wasting all of his time around with you and Seto."

This was all about Kiyotaka?

"...You are so petty."

How? How could this all be about Kiyotaka?

Valvatorez growled, "What?"

A man who betrayed him.

A man who abandoned him.

A man who he still loved. Somebody who Valvatorez would dare to talk about like he was some kind of object instead some difficult but loving person who Vash still wanted to drink in the presence of! Somebody who was flawed as humanly possible but was still the only person that Vash always wanted to see walk through the door.

And yet, to Valvatorez, Kiyotaka suddenly sounded like an object. Like he was nothing more than a prize that the A Rep wanted to keep for himself.

Vash fixed his glasses, rage beginning to bubble in his stomach. "Do you know why Kiyotaka Nensho will never return those feelings you have for you? Because you're a materialistic, selfish man. You use people and only care about people when they can do things for you. You don't care about who Kiyotaka is, just what he is. WHAT he is is someone who's smart, strong, and beautiful. WHO is is someone who would never love someone who only saw him like a trophy. Because that makes you pathetic."

Vash would quickly regret saying that as Valvatorez's hand flew through the air and struck his eye, the only sight before the strike being the almost feral look in the man's eyes.

He found himself on the floor, blood and tears beginning to run down his face thanks to the bits of glass cutting around his face from now shattered glasses frames. He could barely breathe, choking on a mix of shock and pain, glancing up to meet the cold and unfeeling eyes of the A Rep. Valvatorez's mouth was beginning to curve into a smile, seeming pleased with himself as he towered over the gasping student.

"You know, Vash. Nobody's going to be coming here unless I beat your Avatar and end this war. I can have you all to myself for as long as I'd like. " Valvatorez smirked, cracking his knuckles and kneeling himself down before the F Rep. "And I've wanted to do this myself for quite some time."

When he reached down to grab the cowering Vash, he felt something on his shoulder. Did someone just grab him? He turned around to see who it was and found a hard fist connecting with his jaw.

Valvatorez stumbled, off balanced and falling onto the ground. Pain raced through his body as he shot up to face his assaulter.

"Do you not know who I am?! I am Valva-" Valvatorez choked on his words as he saw the person who just punched his jaw grab him by his collar. Vash looked just as stunned as he saw Kiyotaka holding Valvatorez by his collar through his good eye.

"You don't EVER put your hands on Vash." growled Kiyotaka as he raised his fist again and teased the idea only to lower Valvatorez in his grip, eyes lowering for a moment to inspect the broken person on the ground. Vash tried to say something, but before he could, he felt a pair of arms wrapping around him.

"OH MY GOD, VASH! ARE YOU OKAY?! IS YOUR EYE OKAY, LET ME SEE!" Vash cringed as Haruhi practically pounced on him, pushing strands of black hair out of the way so she could properly inspect his face. "Oh my God, your eye! Vash I'm so sorry we couldn't have gotten here sooner! Class A students were flooding the halls and they just kept slowing us down-we're sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Vash felt tears running from her-his friend's-face and falling onto him as she hugged him tighter than she had in such a long time. It felt like almost an eternity. Vash's own hand reached around and grabbed the back of her shirt as he mumbled, "L-let's just...just get out of here..." His voice a hoarse mess, the student repeatedly clearing his throat in an attempt to prevent a cry of pain from escaping his vocal cords.

Haruhi nodded, dabbing her cheeks free of tears before glancing over to the B Rep who still held Valvatorez within his grip. "Taka...let's just go."

Kiyotaka looked at the two of his friends, and then back to the stunned Valvatorez whose wide brown eyes never left the B Rep. His eyes were swimming with a mix of fury and agitation, lips curling into a snarl as he released Valvatorez's collar. "This isn't over. We still have a lot to talk about."

The A Rep remained too stunned to move, only able to watch as the three began to make their way out of the classroom, Kiyotaka's eyes falling onto the broken Vash. Almost immediately, all of that fury washed itself away, lower lip beginning to stiffen as he tried to find something to say that could make this all better.

"...I'm sorry." Kiyotaka mumbled, the shock too great for him to say anything else.

"..." Vash cleared his throat as he managed to say, "D-don't be...I-I'm...just..." Vash felt another round of tears start to fall, "I-I'm just happy you both are here."


	6. Class War: C vs D

"Oh my god, what in the world happened to you, young man?"

The school nurse was wiping Vash's bruised and bleeding cheek down with a cold cloth, frowning when he winced in pain at the sensation of the cloth against his cheek. Oh god, it didn't feel as nice as he had hoped it would, especially when he worried that there was probably glass imbedded in the bleeding spots. Surely she would've caught any stray shards, but part of him was too paranoid to think straight any longer.

"It was... It was nothing." Vash muttered, looking down at his shaking palms. "I just, I tripped when going down the stairs. You know how crazy test wars can get." His blue eyes lifting to see Haruhi and Kiyotaka watching him from the infirmary chairs, both of them stunned that he didn't tell her that Valvatorez was the culprit of his injuries.

"I suppose you're right," The nurse nodded. "We didn't have that kinda technology when I went here, so I guess I never could understand why you kids got into these games."

"Well... you know us kids and our technology." Vash laughed nervously, trying to keep his spirits up, or at least keep his facade of being alright up. "B-But I think I'll be okay, just a little rest and I'll be right as rain, right?"

"I believe so, yes." The nurse smiled, taking the cloth away from his face. "Would you like me to call your parents about the situation?"

"N-No, that won't be necessary." Vash muttered, looking away. "Would it be alright if my friends and I stayed in here for a while... Until I'm ready to go?"

"Oh, yes, of course." The nurse smiled, beginning to walk back to her office. "Just be sure to call for me if you need anything.

The moment she walked away, the two stragglers rushed over to him, Haruhi immediately grabbing Vash's palm and holding it firmly in her own trembling one.

"Oh god, I don't know what I would've done if you would've been really messed up!" She whimpered, halfway to tears. "I'm just so glad you're okay. I... Oh god, I missed you so much."

He didn't want to cry anymore, but he found his eyes watering slightly at the sensation of Haruhi holding his hand along with her declaration of missing him. "It's nice to have the both of you with me again... I missed you both so much."

"We missed you too!" Haruhi cried, practically getting on the bed with him as she threw her arms around him, squeezing his ribcage tightly in her trembling arms. "Oh, I'm never going to let you go ever again!"

"Haruhi, if you don't let go, you're going to crush him before we get a chance to have him back again at all." Kiyotaka reminded, meeting Vash's eyes and smiling.

In a way, they didn't need to exchange words, Kiyotaka's emerald eyes burning with an apology that Vash practically accepted without a second thought. The F Rep swallowed back any desire to ask him right then and there about the past, about their relationship status and what to expect moving forward, instead simply squeezing his eyes shut.

"Fine, fine," Haruhi sighed, letting go of Vash and standing back. "But, now that this is all happening, you know what you gotta do, don't you, Taka?"

"... Of course."

"What do you mean?" Vash's shaking hand reached for shattered glasses, hand recoiling violently when he realized he wasn't wearing them. "What are you going to do?"

"He's going to fight Salvatore!" Haruhi growled. "If he's gonna hurt you, we gotta take him down and the only one who can is Taka!"

"Don't you think this is a bit sudden?" Vash swallowed, trying to ignore the bomb of anxiety that blew up inside his stomach. "This is the first time he's acted like this and maybe, maybe now that you hit him, he'll stop."

"The first time he's acted like this?" Kiyotaka lowered his head, shaking it slowly. "No... No it's not. He knew what he was doing when he decided to make a mountain out of a molehill."

"What do you mean?" Haruhi muttered.

"Well," Kiyotaka sighed, frustration making itself known on his brow. "He decided to pay me a visit when Class D decided to challenge Class C to a Test War..."

* * *

Two weeks into the second month of school and nothing drastic had happened yet. Most of the students seemed to grow more relaxed as each day passed, maybe war wasn't going to break out immediately. Perhaps as long as they continued to avoid one another and go about their own lives, war would remain the furthest thing from anybody's mind.

However, the unfortunate truth was that eventually that bubble had to be burst.

The lunch period had just ended as Haruhi began to clear off her desk, Ai observing her for a moment before leaning back in her seat with a groan. "Every day just gets longer than the one before it."

"Well, you're gonna have to survive." Haruhi snickered. "We've got a long time before our next break."

Ai only groaned again. "Don't remind me."

Things had fallen into routine for Haruhi's classroom. Everybody having grown comfortable enough with one another to the point that most of the class seemed to be synchronized with one another.

The only issue is that they knew one another well enough to know just which buttons to push to upset somebody, making the class quick to jokingly turn on one another in a moment of boredom. This had pushed Haruhi to grow her own pair of lungs within the classroom, taking it upon herself as their Class Rep to silence those trying to get a rise out of an unsuspecting C student.

There were days that she wondered if her class was hopeless, if they were only coming to school out of obligation or sheer boredom. Not smart enough to be in B or A but not lost or naive enough to be in D or F, they were smack dab in the middle and Haruhi had no idea what to do with them.

"Excuse me?"

An unfamiliar voice caught the attention of both Haruhi and Ai, the girls turning to see the blank face of Fuuko Oboro, the representative of Class D as the girl stood in the doorway of C Class for a moment before inviting herself in.

There was something unsettling about Fuuko that Haruhi could never put her finger on. Maybe it was the blank look in her hazel eyes or the constant pout that resided on her lips, but there was something that always left a bad taste in Haruhi's mouth. You just couldn't get a read on her, she could've been the nicest person on earth or the most horrendous monster one could meet, but Haruhi would never know because she couldn't read her!

"I need to speak to Seto." Fuuko announced, looking around the room before meeting eyes with the surprised rep. She seemed satisfied, but no light entered her eyes and no smile graced her lips. "After all, this is important."

Nothing about this felt right, Haruhi glancing back to Ai for reassurance only to see her friend was just as confused as she. Trying to steel her nerves, Haruhi found her voice. "Oboro? Is, ahem, is something the matter?"

The girl only shook her head. "Nothing's the matter, I just wanted to inform you that we're going to be declaring war on Class C."

The nonchalant nature of her voice sent shivers down Haruhi's spine as the once loud and semi-cheerful Class C fell completely silent. "Excuse me?"

"I am declaring war on you, Seto. The safe period is up and now I'm declaring war on you."

Why them? Why now!? Haruhi barely knew this girl, so it wasn't like she'd done anything to turn Fuuko into an enemy. "But why?!"

"You are the class above mine, aren't you?" Fuuko shrugged, finding no fault in this. "My class wants better stuff, so I'm going to fight you to get those better things for them."

"But why me!? Class B and A have better stuff than we do!"

 _I don't know if my class is capable of fighting anybody! It's hard enough to get those just coasting to try harder! They're not going to want to fight!_

"Because you're the easiest target, the lowest level opponents that can can offer us better stuff." Fuuko muttered. "They really want an improved classroom and the Principal says we only get better stuff if we win a Test War."

"O-Oboro! Can we talk this o-"

"I'm declaring war on you, Seto. There's nothing else to talk about. War tomorrow after school, I'll see you then."

"O-Oboro! Please!"

Without another word, Fuuko had turned around and was out the door before anybody had a chance to stop her. Haruhi, now thoroughly surprised, turned to face her surprised class. "I… We're going to war with Class D."

"Is Oboro serious?" Yusuke spoke up. "Why just go for us like that? They've had no time to even prepare for war."

"That we know of." Mitsuo muttered. "Maybe they've been practicing since day two, preparing to take us out so they could have our… average… school equipment."

"Yeah, well that doesn't keep this whole thing from being stupid." Huffed Ai as she got out of her seat, approaching Haruhi. "We don't actually have to accept this fight, do we Haruhi? Can't we just decline and pretend it didn't happen?"

"Not really," Haruhi sighed. "Just like when a country declares war on another country, there isn't an option for that other country to just decline going to war. D decided they're going to fight us... so we don't really have much of a choice."

"Well, damn!" Mitsuo cried, shaking his head. "They're going to trap us then, huh? Well, if they think they can just back Class C into a corner, they're going to be really miserable when they realize that we're not just going to back down when fighting them! We're going to win! We can't lose, right Haru-chi?"

Sure, there had been enough class time to make Haruhi semi-confident in her classes ability to thrive and yet, she couldn't help but wonder what would compel Fuuko to challenge them out of the blue? Neither knew each other and yet, suddenly they were going to fight one another.

"Y-Yeah... Yeah! We can't lose!" Haruhi called, looking around the classroom, trying to fill herself with an energetic aura to hopefully spread to her classmates. "Class C can't lose! Class C can't lose!"

Her attempt to get the rest of the class to cheer seemed to work as the classroom erupted into loud cheers of class spirit. Surely they couldn't lose to a class lower than them! Nah, there was no way it could happen! They were going to win!

* * *

The next day was tense, filled with Class C more or less quietly waiting for the time to come where they would have to fight D Class. There hadn't been much of a choice to begin with, but everybody seemed to look to Haruhi every once in awhile under the hopes that she'd say something encouraging, as if their current predicament was somehow her problem.

"Everything's going to be fine, right Seto?" A student muttered, turning back and looking up at her. "We don't have anything to worry about, right?"

Right away, all of the students turned to look at her, knowing the minute that the classes ended, the clock would be ticking on just when the battle would start. All of them seemed desperate for her reaffirmation that everything would be fine.

"I... Well, I mean," Haruhi faltered. "Look, Oboro wouldn't want the us to fight if she didn't think we were equals. But, we're Class C, which makes us stronger than them because D's are lower than C's. If we just stay careful and plan for anything, I know we can win."

"Y-Yeah!" The student nodded. "You're right! We can so do this!"

Haruhi didn't know if she completely believed everything she was saying, but she couldn't help but glance over to Yusuke, her hazel eyes begging for help.

"Seto is right," Yusuke nodded. "We just need to think this through and pool all of our efforts together to make sure we win!"

 _I wonder... do they actually think I could lead them to victory?- Haruhi lowered her head, trying not to show how paranoid she truly felt. -I... I was never the one who was good at this kind of thing. It was always the guys who were good at this, Taka was good at the military kinda stuff, the you go here and you do this while I do this. Vash was good at the number thing, knowing where somebody should stand to make sure they had the best statistical chance of succeeding. I-I was never a good leader and maybe... Maybe I never will be._

"Hey, everything alright, Seto?" Yusuke approached her desk, resting a hand on her shoulder, which then caused Haruhi's heart to begin to pound a little bit.

But why? She'd never felt something like that before when around Yusuke. Why was his presence suddenly the easiest way to get her heart to pick up and her chest to feel fluttery?

"No." She muttered. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm going to have everybody do to make sure that we don't end up losing this thing."

"Hey, we're not going to lose this. A-And don't worry, you've got the rest of us here to help you figure it all out." Yusuke said, tapping her shoulder so she'd look up at him. "I'm going to stay right here with you."

"Y-You will?" She felt her cheeks begin to dust with bright pink. "K-Kobayashi, I.. I really appreciate it."

 _I never thought I would start to feel something, especially after this entire mess. But, when I've lost everything... Am I suddenly starting to love?_

* * *

When the bell rang and the students bid their teacher farewell, Haruhi quickly marched up to the whiteboard and took a marker in her hand.

"Alright, everybody! Listen up!" Haruhi shouted, getting the entire class to snap to her attention.

"Here's what we're gonna do! We're going to set the first row of students, so all of you right here, over in the right hallway over there. While this second row with be in the left hallway, with the third row posted outside of the door. Tada, I want you to be leading the left hallway team and Mitsuki, I want you to lead the right hall team. Kobayashi, I'd like you to take the team at the door. Alright?"

"Yes, Seto!" The collective response came back, giving the girl a sense of relief she was afraid she wouldn't be able to experience otherwise.

The bells chimed again, but this time it was a chime begging for any classes participating in the Test War to recognize there were only five minutes left until the war truly began.

"Alright everybody, head out!" Haruhi called, watching the students begin to stand up and file out.

"I'll do everything I can to make sure nobody touches Class C, Haru-chi!" Mitsuo beamed, going in to kiss her cheek only for Ai to grab the back of his shirt collar.

"Don't worry about me either, Haruhi. I'm going to wipe the floor of anybody who even thinks about laying a finger on you." Ai said, dragging Mitsuo behind her as he began to complain.

"Just remember, if you need me to be there for you, I'll come running." Yusuke said as he got out of his desk, trying to smile the best he could. "It'll be okay."

"Yeah, it'll all be okay." Haruhi nodded, knowing she'd have to stay within the classroom under the hope of staying safe. Especially since once the Rep was taken out in battle, the entire battle itself ended.

The bell was going to chime again any minute. There was no time to worry about it.

The bell was going to chime again any minute.

* * *

He shouldn't have been in the school.

After all, anybody who knew there was going to be Test War knew that they had to leave school premises so they didn't get in the way or were unintentionally jumped under the assumption that they were involved.

But Kiyotaka Nensho couldn't help but feel like he already was involved, if only because of what this meant for every class.

Now that Class D decided to open up the floodgates, Test Wars were going to become more common. Somebody had decided the time for wars was now, which meant that whoever won was either going to go on a battle crazy rampage, or somebody else could be inspired to take down either the person below them or their own superiors. This meant that... Well, this meant that Haruhi or Vash could decide to come after him, that either could decide they no longer worried about friendship and now only wanted to fight him to get some form of revenge for the past.

But after everything he'd done, after the misery he'd caused them during the end of their final year before grade based segregation, he couldn't blame them if they came out swinging.

He didn't think he'd be able to fight them. He didn't think he'd be able to find the courage to fight the people that had once lit up his world. But would they have the strength to fight him, would they have the motivation to tear him into pieces?

And just when he felt he couldn't sink further into despair, the classroom door slid open.

"Look at this, I didn't expect you to be hiding in your class during a Test War, Kiyotaka."

The man brought himself to turn around, facing Valvatorez Salvatore, a man that he quite honestly was anything but happy to see. No, instead he felt both mortified and concerned for his own safety as he took a step back, swallowing back the bile that threatened to come up at the sight of Valvatorez.

"I could say the same for yourself," He managed to say. "You shouldn't be here either."

"I suppose you're right." The A Rep shrugged, pulling out a chair from an empty desk and sitting himself down, elbows resting against the back of the chair. "But, I stayed to see if I could prove a hunch of mine and well, said hunch of mine has been proven true it seems."

"..." Kiyotaka didn't like the sound of that. "And that hunch was?"

"Look, I'm not going to pretend that either of us are oblivious to your past with Tanaka and Seto, especially when I've made it clear that I'll target them just as you've threatened to in the past. You have have tried to prove yourself independent of them both in the past, but you've remained at school to make sure Seto succeeds, haven't you."

"... Valvatorez."

"There's no point in trying to avoid the true reason,' Valvatorez said, shaking his head. "We both know it's because you're worried about Seto."

"And if I am?" He growled, taking a step toward the nonchalant man. "No matter what I'm experiencing right now, none of this is going to affect you! My actions aren't going to affect you unless you give me a reason to take you down!"

A cold smile began to worm its way onto Valvatorez's face, the man leaning forward. "I'm going to be honest with you here, Nensho, I don't like that people are standing in my way. I don't like it that even when you've claimed to renounce them, both Seto and Tanaka have remained at the forefront of your mind."

"Why does this matter to you!?" Kiyotaka hissed.

"... I'd prefer you not speak to me like that." He muttered, scowling despite seeming unfazed by the growls leaving Kiyotaka's throat. "And I think you know exactly what I mean."

"Oh no, I'm afraid I don't." Kiyotaka inched closer, close enough that Valvatorez could practically smell his breath. "I'd love for you to explain it to me, since you seem to eager to discuss such a topic with me."

"People are standing in our way, Kiyotaka. Neither you or I can focus on what's ahead of us if you're going to let Seto and Tanaka keep clouding your mind like they matter more than anything else. If you're going to renounce them and turn them into your enemies, you need to sever everything inside of you that screams to keep them around you as friends. You need to sever all of it, leave both of them behind and walk forward so you can eventually embrace your future. There are better things in this school waiting for you, but only if you cuts those ties and do it independently."

He didn't understand Valvatorez's true intentions, ignorant of the true feelings the man was trying to reveal and explain to him in those moments. But, he did easily find the pleading for him to stop speaking to both Haruhi and Vash, using them as nothing but roadblocks in the path known as the future.

And to be frank, Kiyotaka didn't like somebody else trying to dictate anything for him.

"You stay out of it." He hissed. "You have no say in what I do or what I choose to do with my life."

"Maybe not," Valvatorez shrugged, standing himself up as the bell chimed for the Class War to begin. "But, I'm not going to live in denial about both of them, I'm not going to hesitate to destroy either of them if they inconvenienced me or stand in my way."

 _Why do you want to stand in front of me no matter what decisions I make? Why do you so firmly believe you're the only one who can stand here by me, like my past or my will means nothing to you? Why do you want to target those that I have been hiding from... those I have destroyed in a fit of my own fear, those who I've broken by rejecting who I am and how I can control it._

 _Oh god, would he hurt them? Would he go after them? Would he be petty enough to stand in my way and destroy them?_

"If you touch Vash I'll destroy you!" He found his own emotions boiling over, his hands balling into fists and his voice practically a scream. He couldn't believe he'd shouted it and he couldn't believe it came out in such a raw form, but it fled him anyhow. A raw feeling he hadn't confronted yet and still felt somewhat afraid to.

"... So, Tanaka really has stolen your heart, has he?" Valvatorez asked, looking up at the B rep with a scowl. "Very well... I suppose I'll have to keep an eye on him, make sure he stays in line even when he thinks nobody is watching."

The A rep gathered his things, his mouth curving into a cold smile that left Kiyotaka nervous. "I suppose it won't be too hard for a mistake like him to wind up in trouble, anyhow. But, I'll be lying in wait until the time is right."

"Just what are you planning on doing?"

"Nothing of your concerns, Nensho," The man said. "And I'd rather you not step any closer to me, or it'll be your class I destroy next."

The sound of students beginning to summon their avatars filled the hallway, Valvatorez turning to face the rep, with his cold brown eyes burning into Kiyotaka's emerald ones.

"This school is nothing but a game, Kiyotaka. And while Seto and Tanaka may fight and try to claw their way out of the lower ranks while trying to manage a class, people like you and I get to reign at the top where we're feared and respected. I'd like you to reconsider just who you want to be with and protect, especially if you plan on winning this game like I do."

And with that, without much of a thought, the A rep left, sliding the door closed and shutting away the rest of the world as the sounds of the students fighting was silenced.

 _Win? ...No, by isolating myself, I'll never win._

* * *

 _Alright, breathe... One, two, breathe, one two, breathe._

When the second bell chimed, Haruhi knew everything was set. Sitting in the classroom all by herself, shoved away in a corner and waiting for somebody to burst in with the intend to destroy her, that was what Haruhi was meant to sit around and wait for.

She clutched a walkie-talkie in her shaking hands, staring down at the small four way radio and hoping... hoping that somebody would speak into it. Maybe it would make her feel a little less alone, a little less terrified of everything that was happening at that moment.

 _Kobayashi. Would you really speak to me if I was scared? Would you protect me if things became too hard for me to handle?_

Of course she believed him, but when she knew that fighting was going on without her, that she'd be useless in this state until things became unruly and people came after her in the hopes of ending the battle and winning.

 _Why did they make me leader? Why me? Because I got the best grade on the test for a C student? Because I managed to accomplish more than the rest of them? ... But if I have to hide away all by myself, like some kind of dirty secret, does that make me less capable than everybody else? Or does that make me stronger than everybody else?_

Haruhi bit her lip, pushing herself further into the corner. _I was always the least capable of the three of us... The one everybody thought was childish, immature and wild. Is that still me? Even now that they won't even look my way, is that still me?_

* * *

"Alright, here they come!"

Mitsuo roared, looking over his squad of four other C students, the man summoning his avatar, the mini-Mistuo holding a kendo sword. "Let's take them down, for Haru-chi!"

Although the rest of the team wasn't anywhere near as excited about the whole thing, the site of Class D's purple was enough to get everybody to summon their own Avatars to prepare for the battle.

The group seemed a little cocky, Mitsuo snickering slightly when taking a step closer to the unarmed D students. "Well, look what the cat dragged in, a couple lost D students?"

"Cut yer losses!" One of the girl's in the D squad returned, taking a step forward as well. "If Oboro wants us to take your class down, then you better believe we're going to follow her commands and wipe the floor with you?"

"And you think we don't care about our rep enough to follow her to the ends of the earth?"

"Not as devoted as we are." The girl, Yuna, muttered, sending her own Avatar rushing forward as the small figure held out a javelin. "The moment Oboro decided she was going to fight your class, we all swore we would do whatever we had to to make sure she won."

Mitsuo went to say something, probably just to ask why they were fighting their class to begin with, but without missing a beat, Yuna's Avatar rushed forward with her javelin pointed, sending Mitsuo's tumbling back in an attempt to messily dodge the attack. Of course this first attack caused everybody to summon forth their own Avatars, making the entire thing a little less terrifying.

"We've got this, don't we, Tada?" Asked another student, a smile from a puff of adrenaline painting his face. "If anybody can do this, it's us, right?"

"Yeah!" Mistuo shouted, lifting a fist in the air. After all, how could they be beaten by the class lower than them?

How strong could they be?

* * *

"Hey, Mitsuki?"

A student called out, snapping Ai to attention as the girl turned to notice a beginning to form pack of D students, causing her to frown. "Oh shit, they're here already," She growled, bringing herself to summoning her Avatar, the snarky looking Avatar growling itself as it held out the rifle it was holding.

The students behind her summoned their own Avatars, each preparing themselves for a battle only for the guy seeming to lead his own pack to hold out a hand to halt them. He didn't even have his own Avatar out, smirking to himself as he looked over Ai.

"Hello, Mitsuki." He purred, folding his arms across his chest.

"..." The girl shook her head, unable to speak as her Avatar sensed her frustration, pointing its rifle at the guy. "Taisei."

"Do you know her?" One of his minions muttered, pulling on the guy's shirt to get his attention.

"Of course I do," Taisei nodded. "Mitsuki and I were in class together as first years, but she was always more interested in the meat headed Mitsuo. Even though we both know I would've been a much better choice, that I always would've been a better choice!"

"...Summon your Avatar, Taisei." Ai growled.

"Come on, Mitsuki, you can't still live in a fantasy land where Tada notices you!" He shouted, knowing Ai would only scream more if he didn't summon his Avatar.

But he should've known, the minute he brought his own dagger wielding Avatar, Ai's rushed forward and fired at his own Avatar, causing his score to drop quite a bit.

Immediately, the rest of Taisei's men began to summon their own Avatars, causing Ai's team to turn back and look at her, noticing her eyes were filled with anger, her words growing cold and hate filled. "Destroy them. But, leave Taisei for me."

Her Avatar dodged his once more, the dagger wielding data beast stumbling forward only to be shot once again by Ai's infuriated Avatar.

"H-Hey, Mitsuki, you know I was just kidding around about Tada, right?" Taisei asked, taking a bit of a step back. He knew she wasn't going to just going to be satisfied with taking down his Avatar, she was going to kick its tail in until it was nothing but data.

"You know, maybe Mistuo doesn't realize how I feel yet, but I promise you, he's way more of a man than you'll ever be." Ai said, watching as her Avatar reloaded, smirking as it fired once more. "And I'm going to destroy you for trying to tell me otherwise.

* * *

Fuuko Oboro, the rep for Class D, wasn't exactly one to mess around. Especially when she wanted to get everything done in an orderly manner. She knew she had to prove herself, especially when most of her class already realized that with Vash Tanaka sitting in Class F, he was eventually going to make a move and when that time came, she had to prove that she was worth something instead of just a sitting duck.

She wasn't stupid, she'd been in the class with Seto and Tanaka and even though she'd never spoken to either of them, everybody knew that Vash Tanaka should've been in B or A. And surely he was going to want more eventually, which she would be the first stepping stone for.

And this was why she snuck in through the middle, leaving most of her class to deal with the troops she expected Haruhi to set up on both of the sides. This meant she and her two best students could just cut right through in the middle, knowing if she timed this just right, she'd be able to reach Haruhi and end this quickly.

But what she wasn't expecting was somebody to be waiting for her, but sure enough, four people stood posted outside of the door, each one with their Avatars already summoned and eyes alert.

"Scouts." One of the two muttered, looking over her shoulders.

"It's not a big deal." Fuuko smiled. "Just do as I've taught you."

* * *

Yusuke Kobayashi only had one thing on his mind in those moments, one goal that he knew he needed to focus on: protect Haruhi.

Sure, he wasn't exactly sure why he felt so emotionally invested in the concept of protecting her but something about it meant he was going to do everything in his power to keep her safe and prevent them from losing everything.

And this was when something he wasn't expecting happened, as one of the three students with him let out a shout of panic as suddenly, their Avatar was destroyed and their score reached zero.

How did this happen?

"Kobayashi?" One of them turned to ask him, only to find their own Avatar suddenly sniped out as well.

Shit, no, this couldn't be happening.

"Come out!" Yusuke shouted, watching the only student he had left taking a step closer to stand at his side while Yusuke's Avatar held its Katana out in front of it.

"Now where exactly is Seto?" Both men froze when they realized it was Oboro taking a step closer to the both of them.

"Where you can't get her, that's where." He growled, surprised by how slightly overprotective he'd become. "You're going to have to go through me first."

"That can be arranged." Fuuko said as two students stepped out from behind her, both seeming quiet, calculating as their matching ninja based Avatars stepped out of the shadows. "Go on then."

It was like lightning, the way each of the Avatars moved as the both rushed forward, Yusuke's stumbling in an attempt to move and keep up while the ally following him struggled to keep up with the other three.

Both of the D Avatars seemed speedy and all knowing, Yusuke's heart beginning to pick up as both he and his Avatar struggled to place the both of them. And all the while, Oboro only stood there like nothing was happening, like there was no big deal.

 _I can't let myself just sit there, not when Seto is just going to be hiding in there, afraid of what might happen if she ends up all by herself in there. I have to fight! I have to make sure she isn't alone anymore._

One of the Ninjas went in to take out his Avatar, but Yusuke found himself feeling invigorated, desperate to protect and help. And with a quick swipe, his Avatar sliced through one of the Ninjas, causing its points to fall to zero, this causing the second one to panic just long enough for Yusuke's Avatar to slice into it and causing the points of the second Ninja to hit zero.

 _I'm going to protect Seto!_

But by the time the second Ninja fell and Yusuke's attention returned to what was going on, he couldn't help but notice that his companion had fallen, Oboro standing right in front of him with her eyes narrowed.

"Would you like to play with or without Seto?" She said.

"..." _I don't want to pull her into this, I don't want Haruhi... I don't want Seto to have to fight._ Unknowingly clenching the walkie talkie tightly in his hands. "I don't want you to touch her. I'll take you out before I force her to fight."

"You right hand people are all the same," Fuuko said. "It's kinda cute, how committed you all seem to get when it's mentioned that somebody you care for might have to fight."

"I don't want her to have to suffer anymore." Growled Yusuke. "I know she's been through a lot, sure she won't tell me what it is, but I can see the suffering in her eyes and I'm not going to let her hurt for any longer!"

"Then I guess I'm going to take you out first and then I'll go pay her a little visit."

Fuuko's Avatar appeared, the thing holding a tritan. It took a step closer, Yusuke's having lost a little of its steam while also trying to appear strong.

"I'm going to keep her safe." Yusuke said, sending his Avatar forward only to hope it would deal a significant deal of damage.

Fuuko's Avatar dodged however, causing Yusuke's to stumble forward only to be hit by the trident of his opponent. His score went down, his Avatar struggling to retaliate, swinging its katana and managing to hit the thing, only for Fuuko's Avatar to retaliate with another stab into Yusuke's Avatar.

He was slightly surprised at her strength, especially when he had expected she'd be much weaker that him, being that she hadn't been able to make it into Class C. And yet, here she was, managing to hold her own quite well.

"Time to call for Seto?"

"N-No, I don't want her to fight if she doesn't have to."

His Avatar was struck again, Yusuke cringing. He wasn't going to be able to hold out any longer, this wasn't going to end well when he knew she was actually stronger than her. But he was going to hold out, or at least try.

His Avatar slashed into hers again, taking a chunk of its points away before Fuuko's Avatar rushed forward, ready to deliver the final blow.

But that final blow never came, the door to the Class C classroom opening as a third Avatar intercepted the situation, rushing forward with a spear in hands and stabbing into Fuuko's Avatar before it could lay a hand on Yusuke's digital fighter.

"Seto!" Both of them stunned to see her appear, the C rep wiping her eyes of tears while clutching the walkie talkie he'd been speaking into, unintentionally holding the button down in his moments of concern and fear.

 _He was going to protect me, he was going to make sure I didn't have to fight if I didn't want to._ Haruhi sniffled, turning to look at Yusuke. "Thank you for trying to keep me safe, Ko-... Yusuke."

He was going to speak, going to tell her it was no big deal, but the moment he realized his first name had left her lips, his face flushed with color. "Of course.. Haruhi... I want to be there however I can help."

"Then let's finish this!"

"R-Right!"

Fuuko growled, her Avatar rushing forward to try and take down Yusuke's Avatar once and for all only for Haruhi's to intercept, giving Yusuke's time to stab into the fighter from Class D. Fuuko's fighter stumbled back only for Haruhi's to stab the spear into it's chest, causing it to reach zero and dissolve into pixels.

The barrier that allowed the Test War vanished right away, Fuuko taking a step back. "This isn't going to be it, Seto, the minute that Tanaka starts moving forward, I won't hesitate to take any of you down so I can avoid dealing with him!"

"Vash is going to fight us?" Haruhi whispered, shaking her head. "He'd never!"

"You'd be surprised with what somebody who has lost everything is capable of doing when they decide they'd like to start having things back." Fuuko shook her head. "If I was either of you, I'd start planning on what to do when he decides it's time."

And with that, she began walking away, somehow taking the sweetness of victory with him as Haruhi only bit her lip.

Surely this couldn't happen, there was absolutely no way that Vash would go on the warpath, right? Everything would be alright, wouldn't it?

* * *

"Oboro really thought I was going to go after everybody?"

"Yep," Haruhi nodded. "But... heh, it's not like I ever believed it or anything. I mean, I knew you'd never want to fight me ever."

She seemed unconvincing though, Vash opening his mouth to ask more only for Haruhi to butt in. "But, Taka, Valvatorez wanted you to stop, uh, caring about us?"

"... I barely understood it myself." He muttered running a hand through his hair. "But, I suppose he had it out for you and Vash from the beginning. However, if tonight will serve any purpose, I hope that'll be to teach Valvatorez to keep himself away from those I hold dear."

Vash knew more about this, more about just what Valvatorez was thinking and honestly, he didn't want to disclose any of it. Not yet, not when even he wasn't sure about how he felt about the situation himself. He didn't know what he felt yet, especially when it came to Kiyotaka himself.

Instead of speaking, he only grabbed onto Haruhi and Kiyotaka's palms, holding the both of them tightly. "C-Can we stop talking about wars? Just for a little bit."

"Oh, yeah, of course."

"Anything for you, Vash."

The both of them seemed to grip his palms, providing Vash with a momentary sense of relief. There was going to be a point in time where wars would start again, but at least for this moment, there wasn't any fighting. He was safe.

But how long would it be until Valvatorez went after either of them? Would he have the guts to try and face them or approach one of them before Kiyotaka made his move?

Vash didn't know and personally he didn't want to think about it.

But at least for now, for these few moments, he was safe and back in the lives of the two people who meant the world to him.


	7. Rejection

The next morning made it very clear that something was wrong. Something had happened and before the first bell rang, every second year student couldn't help but wonder what had happened to lead to this sudden school wide divide. The entire A Class seemed to slink into the shadows, all of the students silently whispering to one another while burying themselves in their classroom, while F seemed both uneasy and infuriated, taking a bold step forward whenever an A student fell into their line of sight.

And, the moment Rin and Ruki Kato entered B Class that morning, they knew they were involved with the situation. It was impossible not to feel the surprisingly dour musk wafting from the room, the twins exchanging a look before approaching their seats.

Rin's eyebrow cocked as he sat himself down at his desk, looking around to find Kiyotaka quietly speaking to Mei, the girl's lips into a tight thin line unless the B Rep paused long enough to let her confirm what he said or agree with it.

"Bad sign." He muttered, turning to look at his sister. "What happened yesterday to get him riled up?"

"Dunno," Ruki replied, pulling her notebook and pencils out of her bag. "Last night, A fought F, so we shouldn't really be involved at all."

Rin didn't like this at all, mostly because he wasn't quite fond of being out of the loop. If they were going to be dragged into a war, he at least wanted to know why they were going to just stick their necks out for F. "Hey! Nensho!"

Ruki jerked, reaching for her brother's arm only for him to recoil and pull his wrist away. "Rin, shut up, let them talk!"

"No way, I gotta know! Nensho! What's going on?" The younger twin called, cupping his hands over his mouth. This effectively got everybody in the classroom to turn their attention to Kiyotaka and Mei, everybody now far too alert to look away.

Mei was quick to shoot a glare back at Rin, her eyes narrowed in frustration, clearly wanting to snap back at him, but Kiyotaka cleared his throat before she got a chance to say a thing to him.

 _The class looks full enough, I might as well..._ He took a step forward, looking at the unsure sea of B students that looked up him for reassurance. "Last night, Class A's Salvatore decided that fighting Class F's Va... Tanaka wasn't enough. Instead of making this a proper fight Salvatore decided to make it a physical fight and struck Tanaka. However, Class C's Seto and I managed to get involved before Tanaka could be hurt too badly." Something he was still trying to both process and calm himself down over.

"...Okay?" Muttered Rin. "Look, that sucks, but why does that involve us? He was beating up on an F, not us. And I heard Tanaka was bad mouthing Salvatore anyways, so he was asking for it when he did something like that!"

Kiyotaka's teeth pressed into his lip, knowing he wasn't quite ready to let himself spill everything yet. Sure, he wanted to entrust his class with his true self, but right now, when he wasn't sure about how he truly wanted to proceed with Vash, this couldn't exactly be the right time.

"You said we weren't going to get involved with other classes at the beginning of the year! That we weren't going to fight unless we had to!"

"Yeah! We don't have to fight A because of F!"

Mei's piercing eyes just focused on Kiyotaka, seeing how frozen the student had become and clearing her throat. "We do have to fight."

"Eh!?"

"Fujioka, don't tell me you've lost it too!"

"If Nensho thinks it best we fight A because of their altercation with F, I trust him to lead us into battle because it's important. I'm not going to assume he's pushing us to fight just because, but because he thinks it best for A to be brought down a peg."

 _Mei._

The students focused back up on their Rep, seeing the frustration in his eyes as he tried to find and failed to find his words. It felt like nothing was coming, that somehow, admitting his true intentions and feelings was impossible.

"You were close with Seto and Tanaka in middle school, I remember seeing you guys together all the time when we were younger. You weren't with anybody else, always them." Dulcine Inoue muttered, meeting her Rep's eyes. "You just want us to defend them, don't you?"

"... I have to. I understand to you this may not matter, but this is something I have to do."

"Awww," Rin snickered, standing up from his desk as his excitement bubbled over. "You're in love with Seto, aren't ya?"

"Nensho loves Seto! Nensho loves Seto!" Ruki chimed in.

Kiyotaka couldn't help but blink, his emerald eyes widening. "What makes you say that?"

"Nobody goes all 'I gotta protect the others' unless they're hopelessly in love with somebody." Rin teased. "So, you gotta be in love with either Tanaka or Seto and eh, I think you being in love with Seto is just more likely~"

 _Haruhi would lose her mind if she heard this._ Kiyotaka snickering slightly but choosing to go along with it to humor Rin. "Perhaps." Turning to the chalkboard. "But you must understand, that I'll be declaring war on Class A today, so tomorrow we'll be facing them."

"We're really doing this?" Dulcine muttered.

"Course we are." Ruki snickered. "We gotta teach Salvatore not to mess with Nensho's beloved! I bet we'll do great!"

 _Defend my beloved? ... I suppose they know me better than I thought, even if they do have the wrong person.\_

* * *

"So you're really doing this? You're declaring war on them?"

Haruhi Seto set down her water bottle, looking up at Kiyotaka who only nodded. The three had ended up in the music room for lunch, mostly so they could speak in private. The restored trio had an odd aura about them, mostly because it was strange to finally be together after two months of being apart, but it was quickly falling into place again.

"I've got no other choice." Kiyotaka mubled. "If I don't fight him now, he's not going to learn a thing."

The both of them then looked over to Vash, seeing the trembling F rep reach up to touch his bandaged cheek, his back up glasses slightly slipping down his nose as he tried to push them back up. He'd been more or less silent through the entire meal, only nodding when spoken to and mostly keeping to himself, clearly having found himself trapped within his own mind.

Of course, the fact that they were actually spending time as a group instead of separate only made things a little harder. The group trying to find a new balance and normal after the break up that they hadn't found the courage to talk about yet.

"H-Hey, it's alright." Haruhi muttered, scooting in and wrapping an arm around his trembling shoulders. "It's going to be fine, Taka's going to kick Valvatorez's butt and he'll be so afraid that he'll never go near you again."

"Vash?" The trembling student turning to look up at Kiyotaka. "Say the word and I won't challenge Valvatorez. I'm not going to fight him if it'll make things harder for you."

"...It's not that you fighting is going to hurt me... I just don't want him to... I don't want him to fight you." He looked like he'd fall apart again, the brokenness of somebody who had been consistently beaten down by the world leaving the both of them crushed.

"Vash..." Haruhi trailed off.

"No, no, it's fine." He muttered, wiping his eyes before any liquid could flee them. "Just promise me you'll be careful around him, I don't know what he's going to do when you fight. I don't know what'll happen."

"He said something to you, didn't he?"

"... He hated me because he likes you... I think he's in love with you, Kiyo," Vash muttered, shaking his head. "He wanted to fight me because he thought I was getting in the way of that."

 _"... So, Tanaka really has stolen your heart, has he?...Very well... I suppose I'll have to keep an eye on him, make sure he stays in line even when he thinks nobody is watching."_

"Vash." Kiyotaka shook his head, finding that only the F Rep's name would leave his lips as he sat there for a moment, completely frozen.. "I should've known, I should've listened. Oh god, this is all my fault. I should've stopped him when I had the chance, I should have kept him away from you before this ha-"

"Kiyo, calm down."

The B rep froze, his heart pounding heavily in his chest while his mind ran a million kilometers an hour. Thoughts were swirling in his head, the realization that he could've prevented this entire thing just by making his stance clear.

Valvatorez thought Vash was standing between Kiyotaka and himself. Vash was a target for something he didn't even understand, a victim of a situation not even his own. This was between A and B all along and F was dragged in only because Valvatorez wanted to prove that he was stronger in the worst way possible.

How could he do such a thing? Why would he ever think that the way to get what he wanted was to run somebody else into the ground? Was to turn his sights onto Vash and make his goal to destroy the boy in anyway he could? Kiyotaka could barely think, his sight growing red as fury began to boil in his stomach.

"I'm going to wring his neck, I'm going to kick his ass so far into the ground he's never going to stand up again." He growled, hands clenched into fists. "This has gone from proving a point to beyond personal and I'm not going to stand for this."

"Hey, don't get too angry!" Haruhi panicked, going to reach for him only to realize she was still holding Vash and unable to move. "Y-You don't wanna fight him on emotions alone, then you're just going to go too far!"

"I'm going to fight him however I damn well please!" Kiyotaka snapped back, getting the other two to jump from the volume alone.

"K-Kiyo." Vash's voice got him to focus, looking up to the glasses wearing student. "You can't just get into a fist fight with Valvatorez and expect this to solve anything."

"He laid his hands on you because of petty infatuation. I can't just let him get away with that."

"Then fight Class A, win and swap stuff with them so they're brought down a peg, but don't fight fire with fire." Vash muttered, fiddling with his glasses and trying to disregard the fact that Kiyotaka had never been in a fight before. "You're no better if you just decide you're going to beat him up instead of taking him down in a Test War. You're better than that."

He wanted to do everything in his power to make Valvatorez suffer like Vash was, but knowing this wasn't what Vash wanted left him unable to let himself do anything that would make things worse for him.

"I won't lay a finger on him." Kiyotaka muttered drawing in a heavy breath as he sat himself back down. "I won't touch him if you don't want me to."

"Thanks Kiyo."

It was weird to be together, tense and uncomfortable but familiar all the same. Haruhi looking from the F Rep to the B Rep, trying to smile slightly to ease the flurry of emotions. "But hey, it's all going to be okay, right? I mean, no matter what happens, we'll stick together now, right?"

"Of course." Kiyotaka said, looking over to Vash who nodded as well.

 _I know you don't want me fighting... But I'm going to make my point clear when I see him... I could never associate myself with somebody like him. Not when my heart belongs to the man that you've broken._

* * *

The A room was spotless, but then again it was always meant to be left perfect. Recliner chairs with a small makeshift table attached to the arm of the cushioned chairs, classical music playing to 'bring out the best in the students', everything about the class seemed perfect and beyond unfair at the same time and Kiyotaka hated setting foot in here.

In a way, it felt nice to know he didn't get into A, because no matter how amazing the supplies were, he'd still have to tolerate Valvatorez and frankly, he didn't want to be anywhere near him unless his Avatar was putting a blade through Val's own. Maybe there existed a universe out there where the both of them could get along, but Kiyotaka wasn't one to believe such a place could possibly exist. Not when he was still struggling to hold himself back from literally blowing up when he got a proper look at their representative.

However, because he walked into the class with his Class B blue tie he stood out at once, the sea of students clad in red turning around to look at him, at once confused but also fearful. Nobody had escaped what had happened and it especially haunted the A students who know that Valvatorez's actions were bound to have some form of repercussions at some point, they just didn't know from where these actions would come.

"That's the B rep."

"I heard he and Seto showed up and beat up Salvatore."

"He's going to fight us, isn't he?"

So they knew what he wanted, he supposed he couldn't blame them for worrying. After all, they seemed to know exactly what he was planning on doing even though he hadn't opened his mouth yet. He just kept walking forward, eyes scanning the room for the person he was looking for.

And in the front of the room sat the bruised Valvatorez, the A rep's eyes narrowing when he managed to catch sight of the approaching B rep. It was impossible not to catch the slight wince he gave off when his bruised eye attempted to narrow, the man clearing his throat in an attempt to hide his hesitation. "Nensho. What do you want?"

"I think you already know." He tried not to spit at him, trying to keep himself collected when standing across from the man who made his blood boil. "But since it's customary for me to say it myself, Class B hereby challenges Class A to a Test War tomorrow night after school."

Whispers scattered throughout the room, Valvatorez's brown eyes darkening as he only shook his head. "Unfair, don't you think? For B to suddenly get involved in a matter they've no business being in?"

He was moments from screaming, trying to bit his tongue long enough to keep himself from doing exactly that. "Vash told me what this entire thing was about, Valvatorez." Choosing to lose the respect from his voice as his anger boiled over.

"And?"

The pure implication that he wasn't sorry, that he was more interested in an answer than what he did, this was the thing that made Kiyotaka turn around, afraid if he did anything else he'd be breaking his promise to Vash by smashing a fist into the face of the A rep. He felt beyond justified and yet imagining the mortified or upset look in Vash's eyes at knowing the cycle of violence would continue made him turn around.

"I'll be seeing you tomorrow night then." He brought himself to say, clearing his throat to prevent the scream from escaping. "And don't hold back."

The whispers of confused A students continued to swarm around the room, Kiyotaka only lowering his head to try and keep from making the situation worse than it already was. He could hold himself back, he could be good.

But only because Vash asked him of it.

* * *

"Well, we're screwed."

Rin was the only student unafraid to speak when the strategy packets were handed out, the B student sitting himself back and leaning his chair against Dulcine's desk behind him, causing her to squeak slightly in frustration when her tabletop was pushed into her stomach at the force of his weight. "Do we really gotta do this?"

"We've got to defend Nensho's love, remember?" Ruki called, snickering slightly while opening her own packet to look for just where she was supposed to be. "Hm... Oh man, this is funny looking."

"Whaddya mean?" Rin asked, taking his own packet in his hand and inspecting it. The frequent doodler couldn't help but snicker at the side of the formality of the packet, from how he'd used a floor plan of the second floor of the school to how he color coded each group of students. But he was quick to catch the A room, noticing that a few names were nestled within the lines that bordered the class"Wait, why aren't you alone in there?"

"Because that would leave me a target, regardless of how high my scores might be." Kiyotaka said, looking back from the chalkboard for only a moment to study the somewhat crude drawing that he'd put up on the board. "Which is why risking that isn't going to be an option, Salvatore is going to take any option he gets to jump us and frankly, I'm not going to allow it to happen."

"Okay, but why does my name have a star next to it?" Rin asked, leaning back in his chair again to Dulcine's frustration.

"I'm leaving you in charge of group."

"Wait, seriously!?" Rin's foot slipped, causing his chair to fall back and for the back of his head to hit Dulcine's desk, bringing her to scream. Only she seemed affected though, as Rin quickly recovered and shot up to his feet. "You're letting me be in charge of one of the teams!?"

"I believe that's exactly what I said, yes." Kiyotaka nodded, a little amused at just how excited the younger Kato twin seemed.

"Oh man, I'm not going to let you down, Nensho! I'm gonna be the best leader of the yellow team ever!"

"I don't doubt that," Kiyotaka reaffirmed, noticing the absolutely mortified look in Mei's eyes as she quickly turned to look at him. As his unofficial right hand, Mei knew she wasn't going to be on the field but rather in the classroom with him, but she at least trusted him to make the right call on who should be leading which group.

"...?" Her eyes said it all as she leaned against the teacher's desk with her arms folded.

"Trust me on this," Kiyotaka said. "A is going to bank on predictability and factors, which is why Class F was a lot more of a challenge for them than expected. Putting somebody like you as a leader would be expected, putting somebody brash and irrational like Rin is something they're less likely to prepare for."

"Is that your master plan, to try and go so far left that A will spend more time panicking than reacting?"

"More or less." He nodded. "I doubt Valvatorez would expect me to gamble a little during a war like this."

Mei nodded slowly, a smirk spreading across her lips. "You know, I think Tanaka would be flattered just to know that you're worried about him. I don't think you need to destroy Salvatore in a class war just to prove that to him."

"P-Pardon?"

"The rest of this class might be full of book smart kids without a clue what the real world is, but I'm not blind, Kiyotaka." Mei shrugged, her playful eyes looking up at him. "If this was about Seto, you wouldn't be so overwhelmed and upset about F's defeat. You'd have been a little more tense during the C and D war, but instead, you've chosen to be wound up now instead of then. Not that it really matters, in the end you're a man in love trying his best to protect that special person, and I'm going to back you up in that regard."

"So you don't mind that I'm..." His voice petered out before he could finish the question, the B Rep swallowing slowly in an attempt to calm himself.

"Nobody here would care that you're gay, no," Mei shrugged. "That's up to you to tell them, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't think twice about the sexuality of their representative." Picking up her own packet before returning to her desk, truly seeming to live by that 'we're not going to care' mentality.

 _Maybe she's right and I have been worrying about all of this for no reason other than a personal fear of being rejected._ Kiyotaka couldn't help but find this beyond horrifying, to know his past actions might have been preventable just by accepting himself and being unafraid of the rejection that may have never been there to begin with.

"Alright then, if you'd like to flip to the third page, we're going to go over how the teams are going to be structured and how you should act when engaging battle with A students."

 _Maybe after this... After we win, I can finally accept myself. Maybe only then will I have the courage to let myself out, to see if the rest of the class will accept me._

* * *

"So, you're walking with me, why?"

Vash didn't want to be rude, but he could see the exhaustion in Kiyotaka's eyes and couldn't help but wonder why he decided to walk all the way to their neighborhood before heading back to the school before the test war started. "I mean, I wouldn't have been offended if I walked alone, I've done it before."

He'd done it more than he would've liked, but without Haruhi or Kiyotaka to walk with in the past month, he'd grown used to the trek alone.

"I know, but I didn't want to leave you alone." He muttered, looking down at his slightly shaking hands. "Just in case."

Vash's own heart sank at the realization that his own paranoia that an A student could've been sent by Valavatorez to 'finish what Val started' wasn't something only he experienced. No wonder he barely got a moment to himself since the fight with A. They'd both been neurotic most of their lives, but this A debacle proved only that it was easy to fan the flames that consumed the both of them.

"Hey, I doubt Valvatorez would be worried about me when all of B is preparing to take his class down." Vash tried to reassure.

"Just in case," Kiyotaka repeated.

"Kiyo" Vash muttered, trying to prod him into thinking a little more about the whole thing, only to hear a sigh escape the lips of his childhood friend.

"Vash?"

"...Yes?"

He had to ask, he wanted to know. "Have you considered coming, er, out to your class? Letting them know who you're attracted to versus who you're not?"

"Have I thought about telling my class I'm gay?"

Kiyotaka only nodded, Vash reaching for his glasses with shaking hands. "Well, I... I haven't really told anybody yet. I guess, well, the only people that know are you and Haruhi. And Haruhi only knows because she walked in on us." The word 'us' hitting him harder than he thought, an almost thud striking his chest at the statement.

"Your family doesn't know?"

Vash stopped walking, his entire body trembling as the screams he knew would ensue began to echo inside his head. He didn't want to be terrified and yet, suddenly he was a child again, trembling and afraid of his own father's voice. Even now it was hard to even be around him when he bothered to come home and Vash knew if he mentioned this, he wouldn't be able to escape what happened next.

"...No." Vash said, his shaking hands finding their way up to his ears and cupped over them. "No... no... no..."

The sight of him suddenly shutting down had Kiyotaka's teeth severing the skin of his lip the man reorienting himself as he approached, placing his hand on Vash's shaking shoulder. The sensation was enough to bring the teenager to snap into focus, Vash's watering blue eyes looking up at him and causing Kiyotaka to freeze as his blood ran cold. "You don't have to tell anybody you don't want to."

 _And I thought I was broken, that I had been afraid of confronting myself and my identity, but here he is. It must be impossible to accept yourself when you already know your own father is going to continue to reject you when you let him see the true you._

"I want to tell my Mom," Vash's voice was shaking, halfway to tears. "But every time I think I'm ready, he shows up and I don't want... don't want him to find out."

"I'm sure you'll be able to find time eventually," Kiyotaka said, but couldn't help but question the words he was speaking. "It's going to be alright."

They were practically to Vash's house, the trembling F Rep beginning to walk again only to find Kiyotaka's hand falling down towards his, reaching for and inner-locking itself with Vash's shaking palm.

"Kiyo."

"I don't want you to worry about this right now." Kiyotaka muttered. "We don't need to worry about, or even reflect on any of this until you're good and ready.

"I-I..." Vash's mouth felt dry, his heart pounding inside his ears, he didn't know what to say, what he wanted. "Alright."

"And please, don't let my question haunt you." Kiyotaka's voice had grown soft, gentle and concerned. "Everything will happen in time, so don't rush it."

"My class, they would probably accept me. B-But my father... he would..." He didn't want to shut down, he didn't want to respond in the broken way that he was and yet he couldn't help himself. He was shaking all over again, wide blue eyes beginning to water as tears tried to make themselves apparent.

"Please don't cry."

Before he knew it, he was being pressed against Kiyotaka's chest, the B Rep's arms winding themselves tightly around Vash as he rested his chin against the shaking student's shoulder. The F Rep hadn't been held like this before and yet it felt familiar and comforting. Vash was trying his best to hold back emotions, but instead they flooded out of him in the form of heavy and painful tears.

He accepted himself, he knew he was gay and he felt no shame in that. But there was some sense of impending doom that came with letting himself out of the closet, with letting everybody around him know who he was and always would be. This couldn't be changed and yet, he knew this would turn his father against him forever.

No matter how much it hurt, no matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise, Vash couldn't deny that he had an innate need to be loved and wanted by his father. Gerard Taylor didn't deserve a son like Vash Tanaka and on some level, Vash knew this, he knew he deserved so much better than an abusive parent who would never see the beauty in his child, but he still craved the love of his father. Was it so wrong for him to long to have the kind of father that both his friends had, that they took for granted simply because they were used to having that attentive and warm paternal constant in their lives?

"It's going to be alright." Kiyotaka's voice a hushed whisper. "Please, just know everything is going to be alright. No matter if or when you're ready, I'm going to be standing right beside you." One of the arms securely holding Vash to him slowly sliding up, resting against the shorter man's hairline before he bent forward, softly kissing Vash's forehead.

It felt strange, to be kissed once more by the man who had left him behind the first time he'd ever been kissed and yet he didn't exactly want Kiyotaka to pull away or stop. He wanted him to stay right there, holding him and promising everything. Maybe there wasn't a title to them, but neither felt like there needed to be one in that moment.

Kiyotaka's watch gave a few frantic beeps, the man shifting slightly before Vash got the nervous hint, taking a step back and looking into the nervous green eyes staring back at him. "You be careful out there, okay? I know you can handle it, but Valavatorez isn't going to let you win if he can help it, you know that. So just... just be careful."

"Of course." He wanted to pull him back into his arms, kiss his lips and promise Vash that everything would be okay even when he himself wasn't sure. He wanted to protect the F Rep, apologize for every mistake he'd ever made and hope to be forgiven and accepted into his beloved's life. And yet, even he understood that would be moving far too fast. "I'll be destroying him tonight, at least then I can guarantee that he'll never touch you again."

Vash took a step back in the hopes of distancing himself from the almost addicting attention. As much as he wanted to stay, he couldn't. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay, Kiyo?"

"Yes, I'll see you then."

As Kiyotaka began the quiet walk back to Fumizuki, Vash tried to steel his nerves. If his father wasn't home, he was going to do it. He was going to come out to his Mother and let her know about the hole that had been consuming him since childhood.

With a slightly shaking hand, he turned his key in the lock, opening the wooden door. The house was lit, so surely his Mother was home from work by now. However, after taking a few steps into the house, he noticed something else.

His father was standing by the windows, having been peering out of them moments before. He had seen it, Vash knew this just from the slow back step the man took before turning to look at his shaking son.

"... Vash." Gerard Taylor's voice cold as he looked into the wide blue eyes of his mortified child with a matching set of his own. "Did, ahem, did that boy kiss you?"

Oh god, oh god he'd seen it. Vash's entire body frozen as his father took a step closer to him. Everything about this felt wrong and yet, something about this kept him from outwardly rejecting himself. Sure, this wasn't going to end well, but he knew he needed to face this. He couldn't help who he was. He couldn't be ashamed of things he couldn't change, he had been gay since birth and would be until the day he died.

"... Y-Yes."

"God damn it." He growled, holding his head in his hands. "I knew that bastard was a fag, but my own fucking son is messing around with him!"

"H-He's not a-" Vash wanted to yell, but was cut off by his father smashing the side of his fist against the wall, the pictures hanging against the plaster shaking from the impact.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Gerard shouted, taking a step closer.

"N-Nothing! We're not doing anything!"

"Why are you around him then!? Why are you letting this faggot corrupt you!?"

"H-He's not a faggot!" Vash cried, tears beginning to bubble in the back of his eyes. "A-And... he's not corrupting me! I-I... I'm GAY dad!"

The blind fury in the American's eyes mortified his shaking child, who took a step back, his body meeting the wall behind him. "I-I've always b-been... even if you don't agree with this, I didn't choose this... I-I've always been and will always be g-gay." His voice a shaking mess as he took another step back, shaking in place in an attempt to steady himself.

"You were barely my child when your Mom told me she was pregnant with you. You were even less of my child when I got a look at you for the first time and realized you were never going to be anything but a mistake." He growled, raising a shaking hand as he approached his mortified child. "I'm not going to let something like you live in my house, because I will never support this decision you've made!"

Vash braced himself for impact, tears beginning to stream down his face. In a way, he should've expected this, should've known his father would never accept him, would never love him like he wished.

To Gerard Taylor, Vash would never be enough, always a failure of a son.

And in a way, that hurt more than the punch.


	8. Kiyotaka's Retaliation: B vs A

_You know what's funny? So when looking back at this chapter and then comparing it to the latest one I've written (because this chapter was actually written October 2016), it's funny to compare just how much my writing style has changed since this was written. I think it's going to be really amusing, at least for myself, to see just how much my writing style itself has evolved in the almost two years I've spent working on this little project in my spare time. Of course this has little edits and stuff, but although I'm not as fond of this chapter as I was when I first wrote it over a year ago, I can't deny that I find a lot of humor in picking up how my writing style has changed._

 _I'm a lot more paragraph heavy and I never let you directly hear the thoughts of the characters anymore. I guess those were just the things I didn't or couldn't keep in my writing anymore, ya know? I think the more I post this baby project of mine, the more aware I'll become of how I myself have grown and changed along with my characters. And in a way, isn't there something kind of magical about that?_

 _But enough about me, let's let A and B duke things out, right? Just as always, please please please leave a review if you can, they really light me up and remind me to post thing puppy online! If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please hit me up! I can only improve if people tell me what I'm doing wrong and who doesn't want to improve?_

 _xKiha_

* * *

The B room was quiet when Kiyotaka walked into the room, the slightly panicked look in his eyes saying it all as everybody stared at him. Sure, they were meant to put the most trust in him, putting faith in him that he could lead them to victory, but from the look alone, they weren't sure. He looked off kilter, slightly jittery and anything but confident in himself. He should have been a little hesitant, but this was a different level of hesitation, a level that B Class hadn't expected to see wafting from the Class Rep.

"Hey, Nensho, ya alright?" Rin muttered, having pulled his blue Class B class off and tied it around his forehead. "You're freaking us out."

"I don't think that's a bad thing." Kiyotaka said clearing his throat to steady his voice. "Everybody knows the class to avoid is A, but here we are. The only advantages we have over them are surprises, which means I want all of you to pull out all the stops. I want you to be erratic, acting more on impulse than a calculated response. This isn't a play fight or an experiment, this is a battle and I expect all of you to put everything you're capable of into this fight."

"Basically, if we don't win, we've failed you?"

"Yes."

Whispers shot through the classroom.

"Is he being serious?"

"There's no way he could put so much on us!"

"First he wants to fight A and now, if we don't win, we're failures!"

"Oh god, I really wish I got into Class C now, at least then I'd have a cute Rep bossing me around!"

Kiyotaka cleared his throat, getting his entire class to focus up once more. "I know it's a lot to push onto all of you, but I've no other choice. Valvatorez has crossed a line with me and if I let him slip by without punishment, I'll be doing nothing but letting him know that he's free to do as he pleases. That I'll accept his making my and others' lives a living hell."

A hand shot up, Dulcine staring up at him, nervously picking at her fingernails. "Can you at least tell us why we are and who we're fighting for?"

 _I can't continue to push this side of me away. If they truly respect and know me, they'll understand. If I continue to worry about what will happen, I'll never end up leaving the closet._

"Valvatorez fought Class F under the guise that their Class Rep, Tanaka had insulted him, something he found in the school newspaper," He shot a glare to Dulcine, making her shudder. "But, he actually fought him to try and prove something to both Vash and I. Valvatorez's selfish nature got the best of him and he hurt Vash, hurt him because he thought if he pushed himself further, defeated Vash both mentally and militarily, it would shift matters of my heart."

"Matters of your heart?" Rin muttered.

"I suppose I should tell you," He was trying not to shake, eyes focused on the floor instead of the class. A heavy breath filled his lungs, the man trying not to let his better nature swallow himself whole as he looked up at the younger twin, trying to appear bolder than he was, even if this resulted in a slightly shaky voice."Kato, I'm sorry to say that I'm not in love with Seto, in fact my heart actually belongs to Tanaka."

"You're gay?" Ruki blinked, cocking her head slightly.

"Yes, I am," Kiyotaka nodded, eyes darting around after admitting this. But, nothing looked different, in fact, the wave of indifference was practically startling. Nobody cared, just like Mei had figured.

Students instead only continued to focus on him, staring up at their leader in the hopes that he'd continue to convince them as to why this was supposed to be important to them. This left Kiyo paralyzed for a moment, wide emerald eyes looking around the room, trying to find his voice as his mouth grew cold.

"And that's why I have to fight," Kiyotaka's voice shaky, losing his confidence for a moment before regaining it after a pause. "Valvatorez thought that by defeating Class F, he could prove something to me and that by laying a hand on Vash, he could make himself appear stronger and dedicated to winning my heart. But all he's done is make an enemy out of Class B and turn his image into a monstrous one. I'm sorry if you don't wish to stand behind me after finding out just why we'll be fighting them, but it would mean the world to me to stand up and fight with me."

"Of course we're going to fight with you!"

"If it's a matter of the heart, we've got your back, Nensho!"

"Valvatorez beat Tanaka up? Oh man, he's going to get it!"

The class was loud, the shouting turning into an incoherent wall of noise. Not that Kiyotaka minded, no, it was wonderful to see everybody so riled up, so willing to protect those few things that their Rep held dear. Maybe they were apprehensive at the start, the hesitation that they'd held towards him from the beginning of the year having remained in the front of their minds. But now there was this undeniable breath of life filling the classroom, every student having been invigorated, suddenly desperate to get out into the hallway so they could take A Class down a peg.

The warning bell chimed, five minutes before the war between the two classes began.

"Alright, you know your groupings." Kiyotaka said, watching the students begin to stand up and head towards the door. "I have my full faith in you as long as you go where I've instructed and do your best."

As everybody who had been instructed to leave did so, Mei turned her attention towards Kiyotaka, a slight smirk on her lips. "I told you nobody would care, it didn't impact anything."

"I should've listened." Kiyotaka chuckled, watching everybody but himself, Mei and two other students disappear behind a closed door. "Now, come on, we've only got three minutes. Help me get these desks over by the doors."

"Alright."

* * *

When the bell chimed again, it sent an excited shiver down Rin Kato's spine, the eager twin brushing a lock of messy dark hair out of his eyes. He'd never been in charge of something before, let alone an entire battle squad. This meant that Kiyotaka trusted him enough as a fighter to let him wreak his own form of havok, encouraging him to do as he saw fit instead of pushing him under the foot of a stricter student who would scold him for petty things like standing up sloppily.

Sure, maybe Rin wasn't always the brightest member of Class B, but the fact that Kiyotaka would be so willing to hand something over, that spoke volumes to the teenager.

"Alright guys, we've got this!" Rin smirked, turning to see the slightly frustrated looks of the men and women in his team. The four of them seemed pretty livid that Rin was bossing them around, because in any other plan, any of them would've been playing leader instead. It seemed almost unfair, to put Rin at the helm instead. "H-Hey, come on now, aren't ya going to smile for me...? At least a little bit?" His voice decreasing in volume and increasing in pitch as he continued, forcing a smile as this happened.

There was a little collective mumble throughout the group, but nothing as eager as Rin would've liked. He pursed his lips together before pausing to notice the school growing dark, enveloping itself in the field Avatars could be summoned in.

"Oh yeah! It's starting!" He shouted eagerly, looking around for the A students to just spring out and attack them.

But no, there was no surprise attack bursting forth to take the group of five by surprise.

In fact, seemed like nothing was going to happen, at least not right away.

"...?" Rin's lower lip sliding into a pout, looking around. "H-Hey, when are they coming?"

"I dunno, Kato, maybe they're just around the corner waiting on you." One of his squad members sarcastically said, adjusting his glasses. "Why don't you go check?"

Sure, Rin knew the guy was fooling around with him, but the younger Kato twin wasn't one to reject ideas, even if he thought they sounded a little off. He shrugged it off, taking a step forward. "Kay."

The other members exchanged a look as if to say 'Really? This guy ended up in Class B and Nensho trusted him to lead us?'. They weren't exactly happy about this, all collectively watching Rin reach the corner and slowly peer around it, leading in with his upper body so half of him stuck out on the other side.

For a moment it was silent, Rin just kinda frozen. Well... there couldn't have been anything out there if he was just frozen, right?

"Oh shit! Abort!"

Rin took a step back, tripping over his own right foot and tumbling backwards onto the floor with a frustrated grunt. This didn't seem to affect him all that much though as he immediately shoved himself back up onto his feet, somehow unphased by the feeling of crashing into the tiling of the hallway. The rest of his squad seemed pretty confused, standing there as Rin ran towards them, rushing past the group before anybody could ask him what the hell was wrong.

But they quickly realized as what must have been half of A Class began to appear from the hallway that Rin had inspected, taking the four students by surprise as they began to turn tail just as the younger Kato had done before them.

"Oh great."

"Come on, follow the leader!"

Well, Kiyotaka probably wanted the group to follow Rin's instructions and if he was going to just run the other way, they probably should do as he did. Sure, they'd much rather stay and do the noble thing, why wouldn't they? But leaders orders, man, they were just as serious as the words their Rep said before they left.

This somewhat surprised the A students, mostly because they expected a little more from the students of the always stubborn Kiyotaka. But hey, they had to get at him one way or another, so they might as well follow.

* * *

Nothing was happening. And maybe this was what she was hoping would happen, squad D leader Dulcine pressing her fingertips together as the rest of her crew just kinda looked around. She'd been quiet this entire time, a little put down it seemed.

"Inoue?" A classmate muttered. "You alright?"

"Y-Yeah." She managed out, biting hard on her lip to try and keep any further noise from escaping.

"Yeah, not buying that." Another mumbled, approaching the reporter and locking eyes with her. "Now out with it, what's eating you up?"

"I-It's just that..." She bit her lip hard. "I just wanted... I had..."

"You had...?"

Her face flushed bright red as she took in a gasping breath. "I had a crush on Nensho!"

Everybody paused to look at her, the girl shaking slightly. "Wait... hold on."

"You liked Nensho?"

"Seriously?"

"Well, not anymore." One snickered, nudging a friend.

"H-Hey." She sniffled. "None of us knew until today! You can't look at me like I'm crazy if everybody just found out he doesn't like girls."

"No, but even then, you thought you had a shot?" One of the boys said. "Come on, Inoue, you're constantly creeping on everybody and getting tied up in problems that aren't even yours."

"Hey! Cut it out, Akiyama! You don't need to be mean to her!"

"I'll cut it out when I'm finished," Toma Akiyama waving her off before taking a step closer, practically in the shaking girl's face. "Come on, Inoue, you know we wouldn't be in this mess if you didn't put your nose in everybody's business. It's your fault that we're here, because if you hadn't put Tanaka's words in the school newspaper, Salvatore wouldn't have had an excuse to fight Class F and Tanaka never would've been hurt. We wouldn't be out here risking our necks for some failures who lost a test war if you kept your mouth shut!"

"Akiyama that's enough!"

"Come on, Toma, you can't blame her for everything!"

"Why can't I? If anything, she's the one who hurt Nensho the most. She did this to Tanaka."

Dulcine wanted to say something, wanted to defend herself, but instead slowly locked her lips together. No matter what she did, Akiyama was going to continue to push the idea that this was all her fault onto her shoulders. She didn't do this, it wasn't her fault, she couldn't have known that Salvatore was looking for any excuse to hurt Tanaka.

"I-I..."

"Oh shit, Inoue!" A voice practically erupting from the other side of the hallway.

Before she could even get a word out of her mouth, the group noticed something moving in the distance, the closer it got, the more obvious that it was more B students, Dulcine taking a step back before recognizing that it was Rin Kato leading the pack, the B tie wound around his forehead flapping behind him as he continued to bolt forward without much regard for anybody else.

"K-Kato!?" Dulcine blinked, taking a step back.

"Hey! Back up!" Rin skidded to a halt, panting loudly as he bent over, his hands on his knees. "Y-You gotta help us."

"Help you...? What are you doing here!? Nensho put you in the east wing!"

"If we stayed there, we'd be boned!" One of Squad C's members shouted. "You don't understand."

"Understand what?"

The student pointed forward, Squad D turning to see the group of A students rushing forward. Safety in numbers seemed to be the motto A was following, the combined group of ten students slightly mortified.

"What are we going to do?" Dulcine muttered.

"Running isn't going to make them stop." Rin grunted, popping his back as he pushed himself back into a standing position. "So, we better just stand and fight, or else we're going to end up cornered when the rest of them show up."

"Guess we have no choice." One of their classmates sighed.

"Then we've gotta do this." Shrugged Rin, holding a surprising calm all of a sudden. He reached forward, holding out his hand as his small Avatar was summoned, the pixelated doppelganger's eyes narrowing as it stood before its master. "Come on, we can't be scared of some stuck up A kids. They look down on us for not getting an A on the placement test even though we were all equals a few months ago. I think it's time for us to prove to them that one stupid test doesn't make a world of difference!"

To the younger Kato twin's surprise, the nine other students begin him seemed to agree completely, each summoning their own Avatar and standing their ground.

The A horde seemed to understand that they weren't running anymore, the group slowing to a halt as they approached the B students, the leader of the A squad smirking slightly.

"Realized you can't run anymore, huh?" The girl, Momoka Ikeda, asked as she pressed her glasses back into place. "Well, that's probably for the best, isn't it?"

"We're not scared of you, Ikeda!" Rin growled, his Avatar cracking the whip it held. "You're not as above us as you think!"

"Oh really?" Momoka smirked, taking a step forward while her Avatar braced itself. "Well, I guess we'll just have to find out."

* * *

"Do you really think we can do this?"

The B room had been silent for the past ten minutes, one of the B students looking up at the pacing Kiyotaka. He had been muttering things to himself, freaking the other three people sitting in the room out. None of them really knew what he wanted from them, other than to just sort of sit down and wait for something. The question had gotten the B Rep to stop in his tracks, cocking his head slightly to the side as he gave his attention to the students holed up in the furthest corner of the room.

"Yeah, I mean, you're just sort of pacing around." One of the others said.

He didn't want to be afraid, didn't want to panic over little things like what would become of the class or what he would do the moment Valvatorez burst into the classroom. But even he couldn't hide the nervousness that was consuming him. He wanted to, but it felt like everything was riding on this one fight. He had to win.

If he didn't, he wouldn't deserve anything. He wouldn't be strong enough to protect the one he loved with all of his heart.

He had to win.

"I'm alright." He muttered, crossing the floor so he could press his back against a wall. His legs all but gave out from under him, the man slumping downwards as he subconsciously pulled his knees to his chest in an attempt to comfort himself. "Nervous, yes, but I'm sure the moment Class A shows itself, we'll be able to finish this without much trouble."

"Are you sure?"

His own class doubted themselves more than he doubted them.

"Of course I am." He managed. "I know we can handle this."

Mei looked up at him, having been sitting on the floor with her Avatar pre-summoned, the tiny thing pacing itself around with a rifle resting against its shoulder. She didn't buy what he was saying, not for a moment, but there was no point in trying to fight him on something she knew he'd stick to his guns about. She was stubborn, but he was unmoving.

"Yes, it'll be alright." Mei confirmed, trying to shake off the fragments of doubt that clung to her. Of course they would win, of course everything was going to alright. Worrying about all of this would be fruitless. "It's all going to be alright, what else could it be?"

"A disaster?" Muttered one of the students. "Nobody said we were a sure fire to win this thing, did they?"

"Well, no... but..."

"But we have to win." Kiyotaka reiterated, a lot more force in his voice than there needed to be. He was afraid and the continued questioning only made what he was afraid of feel all the closer. It was going to be fine, it had to be.

"...A-Alright, you're right." The student said, lowering their head. "I... I won't think about it."

"You shouldn't. It would only hold you back when Valvatorez chooses to show himself."

The room grew quiet with the uncertainty of four B students trapped inside a classroom just biding time. One goal thrown onto their uncertain shoulders and one word hanging atop their heads: win.

* * *

"Come on! Push forward!"

Squad A wasn't having a great day, their leader haven been taken out the moment the A students swarmed their hallway. And now, well, they were struggling to handle the students they were facing.

Somehow, by losing their leader, Ruki Kato had decided she needed to take the role of leader and had been barking orders ever since.

Her Avatar had been handling itself surprisingly well so far, twirling the kendo sword it held over its head before facing its opponents, motioning for them to come at it.

Up until now, everything had been fine, A students attempting to get the jump on the girl only for them to be stunned by her rather impressive score.

Of course they didn't get it, how could they?

Single though she may be, when she and Rin deduced this was a matter of love for Nensho, she knew she had to do everything she could to help him fight for his beloved. So one sneakily taken recovery test later, and Ruki had a score worthy of any A student.

What could she say? She was nothing if not a sucker for a sappy story about a lovestruck person fighting for the safety of the person their heart beat for.

"Come on now," Ruki snickered, sticking out her tongue. "You're not going to let some B student kick all your butts, are you?"

Amidst the sniffling poindexters and the whiney glasses toting geeks, Ruki couldn't help but feel a little superior. After all, who would challenge her? Weren't most nerds afraid of girls to begin with?

"Y-You're not going to feel so high and mighty for long, Kato!" One of them shouted, his Avatar lunging at her only for hers to dodge, the little thing snickering before turning around, striking his Avatar on the head with its kendo sword, turning the poor thing into pixels.

"What were you saying?" Ruki snickered. "Because from the looks of it, I have every reason to be high and mighty when B is kicking your sorry asses."

"Yeah!" One of her teammates shouted. "B's got this in the bag!"

"We're going to make Nensho so proud!"

"Yeah!" Ruki returned, a fist being pushed into the air. "We're going to win to help Nensho kill it in the game of love! None of your nerds or Salvatore will stand in the way of that!"

"Are you sure?"

Although she'd never met him before, everybody knew that voice, the deep and cold sound of Valvatorez Salvatore, there was nothing else like it. The three A students who remained turning heads to see their Rep walking towards the four B students, his dark brown eyes practically shining with the sort of slick hatred that left all of them beyond uncomfortable.

"Salvatore." Ruki managed to get out, biting her lip and taking a hesitant step back. "You're here."

"Unlike Nensho, I wasn't going to spend my fight hiding in a classroom hoping my underlings would do all the dirty work for me." The A Rep said, summoning his own Avatar, the small one holding a handgun. "I prefer to get everything finished as soon as possible and with my own two hands ending it."

She took a step back, closer to the rest of her team. "W-Well... we're not going to let you pass! We'll defeat you ourselves!" Hoping to hear cries of agreement from her crew only to hear nothing, her confidence having been completely her own.

"What a shame, allowing Nensho to convince you that you all had a chance against me. He may stand at the top of his class, but that doesn't make him and I equals. No matter what, you're always going to be below us. Nothing short of lower than the worst A has to offer."

"That's not true!"

Ruki's avatar rushed forward, releasing a tiny scream as it did so, holding its kendo sword out in front of itself before Valvatorez's Avatar could blink. But to her horror, the A Rep's mini-him seemed so much stronger as it swiftly dodged before firing at her, the bullet striking the Avatar and halving its HP with one hit.

"No!" Ruki gasped, watching her Avatar struggle to stand itself up. "This can't be happening!"

"Oh, but it is." Valvatorez snickered. "But, what a shame, I was hoping Nensho would at least try to give me a challenge. It looks like I'll be able to cut through this and still be home before the hour is up."

Ruki just couldn't believe it, her Avatar bracing for another attack. _Please... Please let Nensho and the people he kept with him, let them be strong enough to handle this. W-We have to win this!_

* * *

When the clock hit twenty minutes past, something broke the silence of the B room.

Somebody was trying to get in.

"This is it." Kiyotaka hissed, his pacing suddenly halting before he brought himself to summon his Avatar, the quite angry looking creature unsheathing a golden and bejeweled rapier before ushering the rest of his group to summon their own, which they promptly did.

With desks barricading the door, it gave them enough time to try and focus waiting for something to happen as the doors opened to reveal the wall of desks guarding the inside to a cluster of frustrated students.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Huffed an A student. "Who does this?"

"People afraid of us." Muttered another.

"Just take it down, please. I'd like to end this quickly."

They were all expecting to hear this voice and yet, it didn't stop the shivers from crawling up their spines when they actually did. Valvatorez was here and they were going to have to handle him whether they wanted to or not.

Kiyotaka took a deep breath as the desks were knocked down, making the entire room shake as it revealed the three rather pissed off A students, the red on their uniform practically glowing in hate.

"...Salvatore."

"Nensho."

In a way, those words said it all, two men who truly hated each other, facing one another for the first time in combat. Perhaps this could've been friendship in another time, but now, now it had become ice hold hatred.

"If only you really understood why I did what I did. Why I needed to do everything I have."

"I understood enough to know I needed to take you down a peg! Nobody touches my Vash and gets to walk away from it! Can't you see he's been through enough!?"

Kiyotaka's Avatar raced forward, pointing its rapier at the somewhat frozen A Rep's fighter, who seemed just as ice cold as its Master. The B Avatar trying to slice into it only for the A one to dodge, the look on its face surprisingly sardonic as it only swiftly moved from side to side with each trust of the B Avatar's rapier.

"Why does he get to win?" Valvatorez muttered, frustration boiling in his soft voice. "Why would you never look my way even though I've accomplished more? Even though I deserve more?"

"Just because you feel you're better than somebody doesn't mean you're more deserving of love." Kiyotaka growled. "The fact that you went out of your way to attack Vash because of some petty crush, the fact that you're using people as a means to an end... I'm never going to forgive you for that!"

"I deserve better! I'm worth more than all of you!"

And with that shout, Valvatorez's Avatar turned to Kiyotaka's, releasing a flurry of bullets that the B creation did its best to dodge or block with its rapier, but a few still managed to get through, causing Kiyotaka's points to shoot down quite a bit. But of course he wasn't going to take that, his Avatar rushing forward and slashing into the A construct while it was attempting to calm itself down, causing the A Avatar to fall forward, its points falling.

"I'll never forgive you." Kiyotaka growled. "Because of what you've done, you're going to spend the next three years afraid of me. You're going to be on edge, hiding from me every time you catch a glimpse of me in the hallways. You're going to spend every waking minute wondering what I might do if I see you and then... then I'm going to take your position from you. Your actions have consequences, Valvatorez, and you better believe I'm going to do whatever it takes to make you suffer like Vash has!"

His emotions were enough to fuel his Avatar, Valvatorez's reacting quite similarly as the two began to trade blows, doing their best to try and match the other in hit ratio and speed. Neither wanting to give the other any edge, trying to prove their strength to one another while also believing whoever won would have the most valid position.

 _I have to win this, he needs to pay!_

 _I'm not going to lose! Not when I'm the strongest here!_

Both Avatars slowed down, panting with scores dangerously low. The two digital creatures only stared at each other, practically too exhausted to continue and yet knowing they had to, if only for the stream of energy flowing into them from their beyond furious masters.

"Nensho?"

Mei's voice broke through the flurry of screaming emotions.

"Nensho, you need to calm down."

"I..." He paused, realizing that he was shaking. "I can't..."

His Avatar took a step forward, panting as it gripped its rapier, inching closer to Valvatorez's Avatar.

"I can't let him win... N-Not when Vash is counting on me."

With the bit of energy it had left, the small B creature ran forward, releasing a cry of brokenness while rushing to stab into Valvatorez's Avatar. It was trying its hardest, brimming with the hurting that was consuming its Master. It had to do this, hard to win.

And yet, when stabbing into the chest of Val's Avatar, it did minimal damage, leaving a glowing two over its head while the A Avatar raised its weapon, firing a single bullet into the B being's head.

 **0.**

The dark field suddenly disappeared, the shock in the room growing so thick it could be tasted.

"N-Nensho?"

Mei's voice was the only thing that could be heard, a broken gasp that rung his name throughout the room as all attention fell to Kiyotaka as he stood absolutely still. The B Rep was silent, his eyes wide with horror as everybody came to realize one thing.

He lost.

Valvatorez was just as surprised, but he could only attempt to cover the feeling up, trembling fingers straightening his tie as a fist tried to cover his mouth. "I... I will always be standing above you. There is nothing you can do about it."

And as the man brought himself to leave the A room, the three standing in the room with him all crowding around their Rep to see the frozen look on his face. He was practically shaking, and yet was a complete stone wall in expression. His emerald eyes were wide, but it was impossible to figure out whether it was shock or a sudden stream of anger or hurting. His hands balled themselves into fists, the B Rep continuing to stare straight ahead as his fingernails began to dig into the soft insides of his palms.

 _I lost._

 _I lost._

 _I can't protect the one thing in my life that means something. I can't protect the one person in this world that needed me the most._

"Kiyotaka? Mei whispered, offering him a slight smile only to find the man remained still. For a moment she continued to try and fall into his line of sight, emotions beginning to bubble over as she couldn't keep herself from grabbing onto his shoulders and shaking him, starting off slowly and gentle and beginning to increase in pace and ferocity as she went along. "Please! You have to snap out of it! Kiyotaka!"

The man was completely frozen, but from the panicked look in his eyes, everybody knew that he was tearing himself apart from the inside out.

Kiyotaka Nensho had failed.

And the one thing Kiyotaka had never been able to stomach was having something thrown out of his control.


	9. Facing Loss

The school was silent when the battlefield suddenly fell and the darkened hue of the summoner fields disappeared, the already defeated Rin looking around in horror. "Wait. Did we... who just won?" He mumbled, looking around with wide brown eyes only to see his classmates offer him only shrugs.

"I... I have no idea." Dulcine returned, glancing at the A students who seemed just as quiet and confused.

"Well, come on, let's move back." Momoka called, ushering her classmates to head back down the hall to their classroom with a quick swipe of her hand. "Salvatore will want us to be there waiting for him."

As the rest of the A students began to file back, the somewhat confused Kato twin and the aspiring reporter could only look at the other, hoping the person they were looking at knew what they were doing. But all they knew was that they might as well begin to head back to their base to see just what they were dealing with now.

"Well..." Dulcine muttered, voice petering out before a true thought could leave her lips.

"It's time to go back, I guess," Rin said. "We're not gonna find anythin' out if we just keep standing around here waiting for something to magically happen."

Nobody seemed to disagree as they began to follow Rin, filing into the classroom to find most everything there. Well, everybody except for their Rep who was nowhere to be seen. And amidst the confusion, eyes began to turn to and focus on the slightly shaking Mei, who had her head down before any of the students walked into the classroom. She was sitting in her desk, turned away from everybody else and unwilling to give anybody in the room a look, clearly being tormented by something she wasn't articulating.

"Fujioka?" Rin muttered, afraid to approach the usually stoic girl. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, I mean, where's Nensho?" Ruki added, not exactly as afraid as her brother as she approached the trembling girl.

"H-He's gone." Mei managed. "He, I guess he just couldn't, couldn't handle it."

Whispers shot through the classroom as the Kato twins froze, neither able to get the facts out of their lips while they just stared at her, tears beginning to form in Mei's eyes as she finally turned to look at her fellow B classmates, something that stunned the entire class within seconds. Nobody even knew the girl was capable of crying and yet, here she was, crying tears for Kiyotaka.

"Fujioka." Dulcine mumbled, watching Ruki take a step closer and offer her arms to the girl, only for the right hand of Kiyotaka to stand up and rush into them, beginning to cry into her classmate's chest.

"H-Hey, it's okay, it's all going to be okay." Ruki whispered, gently stroking Mei's somewhat messy hair. "It's just one little loss, it's okay. It's not the end of the world if we lose one time, don't you think?"

"I-It's not that." Mei hiccupped. "N-Nensho... H-He was fighting for somebody s-so important to him and he... he lost. I-I... I've never seen somebody b-break before... b-but he..." She trailed off into sobs, leaving Ruki both stunned and damp.

"Tomorrow's going to be a bad day." Rin muttered, a hand pressing to his forehead to mimic trying to help fight against a headache.

"If Nensho comes to school at all." Dulcine added, catching Rin slightly by surprise before getting him to quiet down at the realization that nothing was making him come to school at all.

"I don't think he'd do that." Mumbled Ruki. "I I think he'll just come here tomorrow miffed at himself."

"And ya think that's better than him ditching?" Toma asked, leaning against his desk with arms folded against his chest. "He'll hole himself up in his desk, barely paying attention, stewing on Salvatore and the loss, trying to figure out where he made the mistake and why it was his fault." The last bit making Mei stiffen in Ruki's grasp.

"Yes, Akiyama, I do." Ruki said, gently patting Mei's head in an attempt to calm her down.. "Because if he's here, he'll have the rest of us to try and lift him back up. I don't think anybody in this class, or Tanaka, is going to be upset with him but he's going to expect us to feel the way he does about himself. So it's up to us to take his feelings into account and prevent him from going off the deep end."

"You really think we can do that, Kato?" Dulcine said, biting on her own lip to try and keep her own tears in. The idea of the strong man she'd idealized hurting left her feeling deflated. But she'd tried her best and she hoped, at minimum, that he'd have been proud of her for fighting her hardest.

"Of course I do." Ruki said, glancing down at the Rep's right hand who was beginning to let her go, drying her reddened eyes of remaining tears. "Don't you think so... Mei?"

The girl was somewhat surprised by the use of her first name, but wasn't exactly going to refuse this extension of friendship. "Yes, I think that'll work splendidly, Ruki."

"Then no more crying, you hear me?" She shouted, looking around the room to the defeated and whining B Class. "Tomorrow, we're going to keep all of our sad thoughts and our hurting to ourselves, because we need to stay strong for Nensho! No matter what he says, no matter what he thinks, we're going to stay right here beside him and encourage him through everything. Is that clear?"

"Yes Kato!"

* * *

He hated himself. He hated everything about himself, from that inflated ego that convinced him he was finally worth a damn and could protect the ones he loved, to the idealistic part of him that thought if he did this, he could stop Vash's hurting from ever coming back and destroying the man that held his heart.

But he was a failure.

Here he was, shaking, struggling to unlock his front door.

His parents weren't home, no, they never were anymore. Not with his father taking up defense cases all over Japan and his mother working in foreign business relations. Sometimes, it felt like they weren't a family anymore, with their lack of being there for him most of the time.

Sure, they did care for him and did do their best to be home for him when they could, but it just wasn't the same as having your family be a constant presence. He had grown used to coming home to an empty and silent home, to saying nothing to announce himself and his having returned for the day. This didn't mean there wasn't a hole in his chest when he returned to nothing and nobody, not when there were times where he wished they could be home for better or worse.

On a night like this, he could sure use them. He could use the strong words of his father and the gentle touch of his mother, he could use their unrelenting acceptance and the wisdom they'd cultivated in their longer times on the earth. They could reassure him that this crushing defeat was nothing more than a hiccup, something inconsequential that he wouldn't hold onto for much longer than a year.

But no, coming home to an empty house was the harsh and all too damning reality that Kiyotaka faced as he got the front door open. His schoolbag sunk to the floor as he stumbled inside, neglecting the idea of cooking and eating dinner and instead just walking to the couch, sinking into the cushions.

It didn't feel nice, relaxing or well earned. Instead it felt exhausting, frustrating and unwelcomed.

He hadn't earning this type of luxury, not when he couldn't even manage to win against Valvatorez. It was a fight he couldn't afford to lose and yet, he just wasn't good enough to win. He had all the chance in the world and he failed. He dropped the ball and failed the only one he ever loved.

Nothing felt worse.

He didn't want the tears to fall, not when they felt like a cry of weakness, like admitting that even now, he wasn't good enough. But there was something inside him that refused to hold it in, that practically opened his weaknesses up and displayed them for all to see. He couldn't hide, not when his eyes refused to stop blurring and his chest began shaking with trapped sobs desperate to escape.

He was a failure.

One job, one thing he had to do and he failed, he left the one person he valued more than anything out in the rain by losing. He was sure Valvatorez would feel more powerful now, that his ego would be fed now that he had undeniable proof that nobody could stand up to him because B wasn't strong enough even when their leader had all of the motivation he could possibly need. Kiyotaka could only begin to imagine how strong he would see himself as now, the idea of Valvatorez actively trying to make both his and Vash's lives harder beginning to overwhelm the broken B Rep.

If things became worse, it was all going to be his fault. By not being strong enough, he would become the reason everything bad happened. He would be the cause of Vash's pain, the unworthy man who had been in love with his childhood friend since they were in middle school. He would become the reason that Vash suffered, the friend who claimed to adore him even though he was the cause of all of his suffering. He would become the worst thing that ever happened to Vash, the reason behind all of his pain.

Or at least that's what he told himself as he lay there, eyes blankly focused on nothing as they burned from the sensation of brewing tears.

The house was quiet, practically its own little world as the B Rep finally chose to release the floodgates and subsequently his emotions, choking streams of tears beginning to stream down his cheeks and a practically screaming cry left his throat.

He couldn't believe he failed. And he surely couldn't forgive himself.

* * *

"Did you hear...?"

The whispers were impossible to escape, not when the entire class was talking about what had happened. B Class wasn't speaking, but A Class sure was, the story of their victory being sent all throughout the school. They were quite proud of themselves, especially when the opposing class was practically silent about the entire event, their unanimous silence only further fanning A's flames

Vash had tried to ignore it, especially when all of it felt like a dagger stabbing into his chest.

 _You didn't have to fight... but I know you. I know you're not going to let this go. I know this'll be the end of the world for you._

His head was lowered when he walked, a blue jacket covering his uniform shirt with the hood covering his face. He was hoping this would key his class into knowing he wanted to be left alone today. He would've stayed home but he just couldn't risk being home if... he... might be there. So although he felt unable to focus, he knew he had to be here to ensure his own safety and sanity.

A shaking hand reached out and grabbed the door to F Class, trying to swallow back any concern before he slid it open, all eyes focused on him.

"SENPAI!"

Oh great, there goes peace.

Before he could ever set foot in the class, he found Koto, Mio and Matsusuke practically at his feet, the athletic student looking up at him with his eyes somewhat dramatically watering. "Oh, Senpai, I'm so sorry!"

"Huh?"

"It's a s-shame, really." Koto nodded slowly, trying to stammer through his words. "T-That another class falls to the awful A-A Class!"

"Oh." Vash sighed, trying to shrug them off as quickly as he could. "It's just a loss, these things happen."

"But it's Nensho!" Matsusuke practically shouted. "Salvatore beat Nensho, your best friend and the only guy standing between A and us! What's going to keep him from coming after us, from hurting you, again?!"

Valvatorez wouldn't try anything now, would he? Vash couldn't help but bite his lip when thinking about it, shaking his head slowly. "No, I doubt fighting us again once our two month ban from battle ends is something Salvatore would do. He wouldn't get anything out of it." The Rep didn't actually know this, but he knew if he didn't say something reassuring, things would get out of hand and these three would spent the rest of the day in a constant panic.

"Senpai?" Mio spoke up, Vash slightly moving his head over in her direction, even if his face was barely visible. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, Izuhara."

"I know it's a little cold in the school sometimes, but it's summer and nobody wears the hood up when they're inside." Mio muttered, not buying his statement for a moment.

"I said it's nothing!"

The trio exchanged looks of concern between the three of them, but none of them could bring themselves to say anything more. Arguing with Vash seemed practically pointless as they slunk back, heading to their desks while Vash only silently headed to his.

He felt awful for snapping at them and yet, he felt he had to. He knew how they'd react if they got a look at the bruise that encased his eye and forced it shut. His shaking hands adjusted his glasses, but it felt more like he was trying to keep tears from forming and falling. Everything felt upsetting and scary and yet... yet he had to bite his lip down and try and remain together.

If he played his cards right, there was a sixty percent chance he would be able to hide what happened from everybody. After all, with today being Friday, he wouldn't have to go to school tomorrow since none of his academics were meeting the next day. Yusuke and Kiyotaka would be there for baseball and swimming respectively and knowing Haruhi she would spend time watching the baseball team for the sake of it, but Vash could easily ignore Saturday all together and hide away.

Mostly from his two friends.

* * *

B Class was in a very different state, this was clear to the Kato twins when they stepped into the room in the morning. Right away, they noticed their Rep diligently writing on the whiteboard, Mei standing mere inches behind him with her sharp blue eyeseyes wide.

"Ne... Kiyotaka," She stammered. "Don't you think this is a little too far?"

"No, Mei, I don't." He shot back, getting her to flinch slightly. "It never hurts to prepare for your next step."

"But we're on probation, we can't participate in another Test War for two months." She mumbled, glancing up at the calendar, seeing the date reading June. "We're not going to be able to participate again until after the Summer break. Maybe we should hold off any plans un-"

"Fujioka, which one of us is the representative for this class?"

"... You."

"And which one of us actually has the right to make plans and decisions for this class?"

"You."

"Then sit down and stop telling me what to do."

This chill in his voice left everybody in the class frozen, nobody having actually expected to ever hear this type of tone from him. This was the person they feared they would end up with back when the school year began in April and suddenly this man was showing his face. Mei slowly headed back to her seat, the bewildered look in her eyes saying it all. If he was willing to scold and talk down to her, nobody was safe from this treatment and it would be in their best interest if they didn't speak to him unless they had to.

"Fujioka?"

Mei slowly turned around to meet Rin's puzzled look, her teeth severing her lip as he found his words. "What the hell is Nensho doing?"

"Planning for when we fight Class A again." She sighed.

"But we c-can't for... until..."

"I know, I know," She muttered. "But he won't hear it. There's no point in saying anything to him about it, not when he's like this."

"Kind of a sore loser, huh?"

"I don't think it's about the loss so much as it's about who he lost to," Muttered Mei. "Losing to Salvatore has opened a rather large wound and he's not coping in a healthy way."

"Think he'll stay like this for a long time?"

Mei shrugged. "Who knows? He might throw a fit for a while, he might move on once Tanaka and Seto slap some sense into him, or perhaps he'll hold it until our ban is lifted and we could fight Class A."

"It might last until August?!" Ruki gaped, clearly having no problem with interjecting herself into her brother's conversation. "No way! I can't deal with this for that long!"

"You might not have a choice." Mei mumbled. "Unless Tanaka and Seto know how to fix this, we might just be stuck with this new version of Nensho."

Word of this was quick to spread through the class, Toma peering through the class to give Mei a look that read 'Maybe we should just beat this out of him', his face twisting into a growl when she firmly shook her head 'no'.

Unfortunately, they were going to be stuck in this mess with him. Maybe it wasn't their fault that they lost, maybe it was only his or maybe it was the fault of the class as a whole. The only thing Mei knew for sure was that whether they liked it or not, they were going to be stuck with Kiyotaka Nensho in the long run. If he was going to slightly go off the deep end, he would be their mad man to try and deal with.

Mei just hoped there would be a way to try and wake him up from this frantic nature before it was too late.

* * *

The music room was quiet when Haruhi entered, a frown overtaking her lips when she noticed that neither of the guys were there waiting for her like usual. It wasn't like either to be late, which left her somewhat pouty as she sat herself down on the floor of the music room, unpacking her lunch box as she only stared at it, waiting for the other two to arrive.

It took about five minutes before one student walked into the room. For a moment, Haruhi couldn't figure out just who it was walking into the room, staring up at the hooded figure before putting two and two together and clearing her throat.

"Vash?"

He kept his head lowered, making Haruhi slightly uncomfortable as she couldn't see his face at all as he slowly sat himself down beside her. "Haruhi." He muttered, clearing his throat in an attempt to keep his voice straight.

"..." She shook her head, knowing not to ignore what was clearly something wrong. "Hey, what's going on?"

"It's nothing."

"I've known you since before we were in diapers, dummy." Haruhi huffed, folding her arms across her chest. "If you don't fess up, I'm going to tear that stupid hood off your head myself. Up to you, Tanaka." Her voice quite gruff when she used his last name.

"... Please."

"Vash, I'm not going to be mad at you." She mumbled. "I just worry about you. So you gotta take off that hood."

His hands were shaking as he slowly reached up to tug the blue cloth away from his head, Haruhi's brown eyes rather wide as she watched him do just that. And then, the moment the hood was removed, a small gasp escaped the lips of his lifetime friend.

His left eye was encased in a black-purplish bruise, basically swollen shut from the previous trauma to the poor thing. His face was dark with pain and embarrassment, unable to look at Haruhi while her terrified eyes studied his hurting demeanor.

"Who did this?"

"Haruhi... I..."

"Who. Did. This?" She growled, having expected to hear Valvatorez's name escape his lips. And well, if that really was the answer, the C Rep had half a mind to take the man out with her own two hands, regardless of what would happen to her.

"It... I..." He was shaking, arms slowly wrapping around his body as he tried to stop himself from violently trembling or even breaking down. "It... M-My D-Dad."

Her eyes widened as those two words escaped his lips. Naturally, both Haruhi and Kiyotaka had hated Gerard Taylor for years, or rather ever since they were children. They were never oblivious to the abuse that Vash clearly had to endure, but up until this point, it had more or less only be neglect. Gerard had never put a hand on his kid, which is why Haruhi and Kiyo had more or less opted to hate him silently from the background, knowing making their feelings on the matter known would do nothing but hurt their friend as the knowledge that his father was abusive only became more apparent and made life ultimately harder for him.

"He... he hit you?"

This wasn't something that she had prepared herself for, this wasn't something that she thought he would actually do. She wasn't prepared to hear that Vash had been hit and she certainly wasn't prepared to handle this situation long term. But what she was prepared for was the short term as she looked up at Vash's shaking form, the F rep unable to stop himself as a sob escaped his throat.

"O-Oh god, no." Haruhi shook her head as she scooted closer, pulling him into her arms before he could get a word out. "H-Hey... it's all okay now... I'm right here." Feeling his arms wrap tightly around her as he began to cry into her shoulder.

She hated his dad, she always had but never like this, not with a burning desire to make him hurt like his child was. She'd had to comfort Vash many a time due to crisis caused only by his father and yet, this wasn't like those other times. None of them thought he'd ever actually hit Vash and yet, here he was, sobbing about the unthinkable having happened to him. They didn't know what to do and yet, she remained there, holding him tightly as he violently sobbed into her shoulder.

Maybe it was for the best that Kiyotaka skipped out on lunch as Haruhi held her friend. If he knew all this had happened, both of them knew he would absolutely lose his shit and make everything about this so much worse.

Haruhi wasn't sure how, but at minimum, she knew she had to do something to try and help somebody who meant the world to her.

She was going to help him, she just had to.

* * *

"And that's it... his dad hit him and I... I just don't know how I'm going to fix it."

Haruhi and Yusuke were out on the town, not a date or anything, just the two of them spending time together as Haruhi munched on a strawberry crepe.

"Hit him?" Yusuke mumbled, shaking his head slowly. "Oh God, I can't imagine."

"Yeah," She sighed. "I mean, his dad's always been the worst, but none of us thought he'd ever actually lay a hand on his kid."

"I don't think you can fix that though. I mean, you can't make his dad go away or anything, that guy is always going to be Tanaka's dad whether you like it or not."

"I know, but he's alone in that house. Only child. And sometimes, he's home alone with only his dad with nobody there to calm him down or keep him from going crazy with stress and fear." Haruhi mumbled. "If he just had something or somebody to help him out, maybe it would make home a better place for him. It's not like I can let him stay at my house all the time, at the end of the day, he's gonna have to go home. He's gonna either have his mom to protect him or he's going to be alone and in danger"

"Well, you can't just get him a sibling."

"True." Haruhi pouted, taking another bite of the crepe. "I just, I can't do nothing."

"Excuse me?"

The two C students turned their attention to a meek voice, seeing a middle school student standing there nervously. She fiddled with her glasses, trying to find her voice. "I... uhm, would you happen to like cats?"

"Er..." Yusuke's voice catching his throat as he tried to reach for Haruhi's wrist to pull her along before she could get attached.

"Cats?" Haruhi blinked, her eyes lighting up. "Of course I do!"

Too late.

"Y-You do?" The middle schooler smiled. "Would you happen to be interested in a kitten then? Y-You see, my cat recently had kittens and my Mom wouldn't let me keep any of them. So I-I've been trying to give them away to a good home."

"Haruhi." Yusuke knew what she was going to do, what she was thinking. "Come on, we really shouldn't."

"Just a peek?" She mumbled. "Come on, that much couldn't hurt, right?"

"... Fine..." The baseball player sighed.

Haruhi pulled Yusuke over as the both of them peered into the box in the middle schooler's hands, the eyes of the C Rep widening at once as she slightly gasped in slight delight.

"Oh my gosh, they're... they're so cute!"

Four kittens rested themselves in the box, crawling atop one another and pawing at the top of the box in hopes of getting noticed by the two people peering at them, desperate to be pulled free of their cardboard prison.

And although she knew she shouldn't have, Haruhi couldn't help but pick one of them up, reaching into the box and selecting one of the mewling kittens who caught her eye almost immediately. The calico kitten's main fur color seemed to be white but she was covered in orange and black spots, the cat nipping at Haruhi's index finger the moment she was picked up.

"Oh, it's so cute." Haruhi cooed as she cradled the kitten against her chest.

"Haruhi." Yusuke's voice stern as he tried to remind her that they were only looking.

"She's got a big personality." The middle schooler snickered. "She was always the one tearing up the drapes, or chewing on her Mom's tail. You'd have to be willing to train her to listen if you wanted to take her home"

"Yusuke, we can't just leave her here!" Haruhi said, holding the kitten closer to his face so he could see the innocent and wide yellow eyes of the can. "We gotta take her!"

"Well, I can't! I've got two dogs, they'd tear her apart."

"Well, I cou- ... Can't take her," Haruhi's excitement fading the moment reality struck her. "My Dad's allergic to cats. We couldn't ever have one because if he walks into a room where one used to be, his eyes water up and he starts sneezing all over the place."

"Then we can't take her with us." Yusuke shrugged. "This is why I told you not to look at them, you were only going to get attached to what you couldn't have."

"I guess you're ri..." Haruhi paused for a moment, thinking her words over before shaking her head. "Wait... I know what we can do with her!"

"Haruhi, no" Yusuke muttered, staring at the woman and shaking his head. He knew Haruhi and he knew what she was thinking. This wasn't going to end well, but he knew no matter what he said, Haruhi was going to do exactly as she pleased.

* * *

When the knock came at the door, Vash couldn't suppress the groan that left his lips as he headed to open it.

Please, just please don't let it be Kiyotaka.

"Vash~!"

Just Haruhi. Vash couldn't help but bite down his lip at the sight of the girl, holding a shoebox with holes sloppily put through the cardboard.

Oh no.

"Haruhi?" Vash swallowed down his concern. "What's... What did you do?"

"Hear me out, okay?" She said, offering him the shoebox with a wide grin. "I think, I think this might help how you feel about coming home everyday. Maybe we can turn dread and fear into excitement?"

Vash didn't want to take it, but he knew he more or less had to with how Haruhi was almost shoving the box into his chest, his shaking hands grasping the shoebox and slowly pulling the lid off to reveal a sleeping kitten nestled up in a bright pink blanket.

"H-Haruhi, why?" Vash muttered., anything but impressed "I don't like animals."

"I know it sounds crazy, but animals... well, they're known for being practically therapeutic." Haruhi said. "Just being around an animal is known to help people's stress and blood pressure levels. I know you don't think she'll be that helpful, but I know the two of you would be fast friends."

"I don't this this is a good idea" He looked up at the trying to smile girl, knowing that the kitten, and the large bag probably containing kitten food, cat litter and accessories, were all her attempt to help him overcome the pain of his homelife. "Haruhi, come on, you know this isn't going to end well."

"Just trust me, okay?" She said, trying to smile. "I know it sounds crazy, but I think the two of you will get along pretty well. And not to brag, but I'm almost always right about these kinds of things."

He glanced back into the box, seeing the sleeping kitten inside. Well, he couldn't deny that she was pretty cute and yet, well, there wasn't much he could say other than that. He'd never had a pet before and he had no idea what to do with her. He knew cats were pretty independent, but he would still have to participate in her life and it felt so odd, but he didn't think he was cut out to be an owner of some little cat.

"Just trust me. Okay? If things are really that bad, I'll come back and find a new place for her. But, but I think this is a really good thing for you to try. A nice change of pace and a reason to smile a little big more."

"I... Fine, I trust you." Vash mumbled as he looked back at her, watching her face light up.

"You'll really take her!?"

"Yeah, fine, I'll try this out and keep her." Vash said. "Just, just don't be surprised if I don't fall in love with her like you think I will."

"Psh, I know you will." Haruhi teased, waving him off playfully. "You can pretend you don't already care for her, but I know you. I know you'll fall in love with her before you know it. I mean, come on, nobody is a bigger softie than you!"

Vash couldn't help but roll his eyes at the statement. He'd never been a pet person, so there was no way he was just going to magically fall in love with some little kitten. It wasn't like him.

He was trying to do homework when the kitten woke up. She'd woken up when he'd first carried the shoebox up the stairs into his bedroom, but she'd lost interest almost immediately, nuzzling against the blanket she'd been curled up in and drifting back to sleep within moments of being placed in a corned of the room.

This time was a little different as she stretched, leaping out of the shoebox and beginning to trot around the room with her tail pointed straight up. She was clearly interested in the entire room, but when spotting Vash diligently working on school work, the kitten grew eager for attention.

He wasn't paying her any mind until he felt the sensation of tiny claws pricking against his toes, the teenager cringing and peering down to see the young cat was pawing at his uniform pant leg, her tiny claws retracting and extending her claws into the leg playfully.

"What are you doing?" Vash mumbled, the kitten refusing to pay him any mind as she took notice of his socks, the kitten's paws finding their way onto his sock and pressing her claws into the heavier tops of them, finding her claws getting trapped in them for a moment as she tried to yank them free.

 _Well... she's clearly curious._

"You like that...?" Vash found himself asking the cat, her wide yellow eyes looking up into his as she managed to pull her paw free, the kitten laying herself on her back and pawing up at him playfully.

 _Okay... so she's kinda cute._

Vash found himself pushing his chair back, the sound spooking the cat who sat up, mewling at him as the teenager slowly moved his hand in closer, his palm resting atop her head as he scratched behind her ears. She seemed to like this, rubbing her head against his skin, surprising the teenager quite a bit as she ran her body against his arm, purring loudly all the while.

"S-Stop that." Vash stammered. "Y-You can't just do that."

Well, clearly she could, the kitten rubbing against him and only beginning to purr all the louder as if to challenge his statement. Vash trying to pretend it didn't touch him for a moment longer before he sighed, giving into temptation and scooping the somewhat surprised cat up. He plopped her into his lap, the little creature's ears perking up as she assessed the bedroom from a higher point of view.

He tried to focus back up on his homework, while the kitten would bat at his moving elbow, more interested in the movement than Vash himself. And every time he looked down at her curious eyes, at her rapidly moving ears and constantly flexing paws, he couldn't help but smile gently.

He let his left hand sink down and pet her gently, the kitten relaxing in his touch as she began to lay down in his lap with her legs tucked under her body, tail casually swishing from side to side as he stroked her soft fur.

"Just don't tell Haruhi, alright?" He whispered to the cat as he went back to his homework, petting her all the while. Maybe the idea that she was some kinda calming agent wasn't crazy, but this didn't mean he was just going to fall in love with her, did it?

Vash didn't know. But at least for now, he couldn't say he minded having the kitten in his lap. Her purring was somewhat calming and her fur was rather soft.

But no way, he wasn't gonna fall in love with this little kitten.

Not at all.


	10. A broken shield

_Can you please come over?_

He wasn't in the mood for her texts harassing him, but a quick reply of 'no' wasn't enough to get her to stop messaging him, instead it only encouraged her to send text after text in the hopes of breaking him down and getting him to do as she asked. No matter how hard he fought it, Kiyotaka somehow found himself leaving the sanctity of his silent home and heading across the street. He saw no use in fighting with her forever, not when Haruhi was practically famous for digging her heels in and refusing to let something go even when it was long past time to move on.

The sensation of being stabbed had yet to leave his gut, his mind constantly running through the day before and reminding him of everything that had happened.

Failure.

Useless.

How could he ever expect to be loved when he couldn't protect the only person he'd ever cared for? How could he ever see worth in himself when he failed at the one thing he promised himself he'd do no matter what? He couldn't be a protector if he was unable to protect the one person he wanted to put before himself.

He didn't want Vash to see him, he couldn't dare look him in the eye after everything he had done. It terrified him to even think about facing the person who put faith in him, who trusted him to protect him when things got bad.

A shaking hand reached itself out, slowly knocking against the door. _Please, just don't hold this against me. I know I should've done better, I know I should've fought harder, but this is what I've been reduced to and I've got two months before I can do anything about it._

He was trying to hold everything in, hide the boiling misery he worried might eat him alive, when the door opened. A slightly puffy eyed Haruhi stood on the other side, her fingers tightly wrapped around the wood as her lips parted. "Come on in." Trying to smile only to give up about half way through.

His concerns washed away at once, the self loathing and desperation to be forgiven replacing itself with confusion and worry. When she was upset, Kiyotaka wasn't exactly the type of person she would run to. Although he'd proven himself to be quite paternal and gentle when facing somebody in tears, he and Haruhi hadn't had the bond where she'd feel comfortable rushing into his arms looking for the comfort he might be able to provide. He was never what she reached for, something both had come to terms with in their years together.

And yet, here he was on her doorstep.

"Haruhi?" The sound of his own voice surprised him, the softness and care in it unfamiliar to them both. "What's wrong?"

She took a step back, allowing him inside. She remained silent while he pulled off his shoes and placed them down, her usually sparkling eyes dim and shaking. A few times she would open her mouth, attempting to try and find her voice only for the sound to disappear and her chin to lower itself in fear. Come on, she could tell him, she could say this. She had to tell him what happened, even if he wasn't going to handle it the best.

She had to tell him.

"Er, Taka?"

Their eyes met, the burning emerald eyes getting her to slink down for a moment. She swallowed her fear, hearing the popping sound in the back of her ears. "I... It's about Vash."

The change in his expression was almost immediate, fear filling his eyes. His lips parted, the slight shaking of the lower taking Haruhi by surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"You didn't see him today?"

He flinched. "No, I didn't have a chance. I was... busy." Unable to look at her, somewhat humiliated that he spent the day filling the Class B whiteboard with strategic babble. "Why? What happened to him?"

"Well," her voice trailed off, the realization that his response might be violent suddenly striking her. Oh god, was talking to him about this a mistake? "It's... Well, I..."

"You?" The nervousness in his voice practically biting.

"It's his father. Last night, I guess something happened between them, Vash never really told me what the whole thing was about. But the important part is that sometime during the argument, his Dad... well, he hit him."

The air suddenly grew cold, the stunned silence causing Haruhi to tremble, trying to keep any tears from escaping down her cheeks. The horror on his face said it all, his hands slowly clenching into tight fists. "He hit him?"

"Y-Yeah."

The sensation of being stabbed slowly morphed into the feeling of being sliced in the half, Kiyotaka slowly reaching for the shoes he had discarded. There is no way this could be happening, there was no way that he had managed to fail Vash twice in one night. Not only had he managed to lose the test war to Class A, but he wasn't able to protect the one person he treasured from his own home life.

Was everything trying to tear into Vash? How was he supposed to protect him when the world seemed to be fighting against his beloved's safety and sanity?

"I..." He shook his head, biting his lip. He couldn't believe he had failing him twice, that he left him alone to fight for him only for his father to turn against his child. Valvatorez and Gerard had won, Kiyotaka had failed and Vash lost.

His shoes were back on his feet, the B Rep standing himself up and reaching for the doorknob.

"What are you going to do?"

"... I'm just going to talk with the Taylors."

Only Gerard had the last name Taylor.

The door was opened, Kiyotaka going to head out only for Haruhi's hand to shoot out and take ahold of his arm, gripping it firmly.

"Let me go."

Her lower lip trembled, fingers winding tightly around his right arm. "Please don't do anything stupid. You'll only make it worse for Vash if you try to break into the house and get some form of revenge or justice. He's already had a really bad week, with both the school and his own house having somebody that can and will hurt him. If... If you want to be there for him, to protect him, then you gotta be there to hold him and make him know he's loved. If you go around beating the daylights out of everybody that hurts him, you'll start becoming the thing you hate."

"Haruhi."

"You can go over there and see him," Her voice was cracking with the onset of tears, trembling hands slipping down his arm and tightly squeezing his wrist in response to his trying to pull free of her. "But please, don't do anything crazy. That'll only make it worse for him. And he's already suffered enough."

He didn't say anything, only gently pulling forward as her fingers began to unwind around his skin. He was trying to ignore the sound of her crying, chewing at his lower lip. He was going to do whatever he saw fit, this week had screwed him over enough and he didn't owe it anything at this point. "Goodbye, Haruhi."

He closed the door before she could say anything else, trying to steal his nerves and keep rage from boiling over before things became impossible to keep in control. Surely if he just kept it in, if he took deep breaths and tried to calm himself down, everything would be alright. He would be able to handle the situation like Haruhi wanted him to, he would be able to say everything he needed to while not making things worse.

But how could he ever sit by and allow somebody like Gerard to lay a finger on the most precious thing he had in his life?

Beginning the walk, Kiyotaka tried to rationalize the entire situation with himself, going over the words he wanted to say and the things he felt he would need to do.

He would apologize. He would allow himself to become the villain, the force unable to protect everything that he held close. He would let himself grow warped, find his strength and fight for what he saw fit.

Facing the door, he tried to push the words dying to get out down, chewing at his lower lip and reaching his hand out, knuckles gently tapping against the door.

 _Please be there. Please let me speak to you._

The sound of the lock clicking open got him to freeze in place, Kiyotaka's teeth severing the skin of his lip. He suddenly felt terrified, his heart pounding inside his ears. Could he do this? Would he mess everything up like Haruhi had feared?

A beat.

"Kiyo?"

The door had slightly opened, one singular blue eye peering outside at the B rep from behind a thick black frame. His voice was quiet, slightly shaking at the sensation of the man's name leaving his lips. "What are you doing here?"

"I," his words fled, leaving Kiyotaka standing there without a clue what to say. "I, er, I wanted to see you."

The single eye darted from left to right, a shaking breath leaving Vash's lips. "I don't know if now is the right time."

"Please."

The sudden weakness in Kiyo's voice was what caught Vash off guard, the F representative knowing he couldn't close this door no matter how hard he tried, shaking hands slowly pulling it open. He took steps backwards when opening it, hiding himself from the entering Kiyotaka, terrified of what would happen when the taller student got a look at his face.

"So, uh," Vash couldn't even look up at him. "Why are you here so late? Couldn't this wait until tomorrow?"

Emerald eyes had found him behind the door, a shudder overtaking him as Kiyotaka's hand found its way to Vash's softened chin. His hand was gentle as it lifted Vash's visage into the light for inspection.

Just as he feared, a purple and grey color had overtaken one of his eyes, the poor thing swollen shut. His lips pressed themselves into a frown, trying to keep the shaking rage from within down as he found his words. "Haruhi said your father did this to you." His tone wavering, his attempt to keep his tone still failing him as it came off more as a growl than it did a half hearted statement.

The fear had returned, Vash pulling himself out of Kiyotaka's grip and pushing his back against the space between the open front door and the wall. "I don't want to talk about it."

"And if you don't, it's going to keep happening."

"This isn't any of your business!"

The sudden ferocity in Vash's voice took the both of them by surprise, the taller student taking the door in his hands and pushing it closed, leaving Vash with his back pressed into the corner in an attempt to guard himself.

"Why did he do this to you?" The softness in his voice confusing Vash, who found his legs giving out as he slunk back into the corner, pulling his knees to his chest in a somewhat pathetic attempt to feel safer.

"Kiyo, we're not going to talk about it." He firmly said before resting his forehead against his knees, beginning to tremble. He didn't want to cry, he didn't want to seem weak when he was already feeling as low as possible.

"Please don't shut me out."

His voice cracked, Vash lifting his head in shock to find the crumbling structure that was Kiyotaka. He slowly lowered himself, sitting across from Vash and staring at him with slightly watering emerald eyes. Nothing managed to break his composure, Vash had known him for years and only seen him cry a handful of times and almost all of them were when they were kids. Something about this felt even more toxic than the conversation they were going to have about Vash's father.

"What happened?" Vash found himself asking, voice meek and cautious.

"The world is out to take you away from me," Kiyotaka muttered, now afraid to meet Vash's eyes. "I go off to try and fight Class A to prove to Valvatorez that I wouldn't let him put a finger on you without punishment and he, he wins. I lose to Valvatorez and that same night, somebody else hurts you. I want to protect you, keep you safe but, I'm scared I'm not enough."

"Not enough?"

"Not enough to keep you safe." Kiyotaka's voice had grown soft, terrified. "Not enough to make sure nobody lays a finger on you and intentionally hurts you. If I want to, want to be right here with you, if I feel like I can stay here with you forever, I need to keep you safe. And that night I, I failed you twice."

His shaking palms slowly lifted themselves, pressing against his face before parting around his eyes. Kiyotaka was somewhat alarmed by how quickly he was beginning to shrink, taking in a deep breath to try and prevent anything he couldn't control from coming out.

"Kiyo?"

Vash hadn't expected to be the one moving, slowly crawling out of the corner and sitting himself directly before the trembling man. He felt the need to reach out and hold him tightly and yet, something kept him from doing that right away.

"Kiyo, I know a lot of bad things have happened lately, but nobody is blaming you for any of it. So maybe you lost to A, they've got more students with perfect GPAs anyways. Everybody was expecting you to lose, just by statistics alone. And so what? Sometimes you lose, it happens. It doesn't mean the world will end."

"And by losing, I've proved to Valvatorez that he's the strongest force in the school. That he can do whatever he want without any consequence."

"Then get into A next year and dethrone him. Sitting here and pouting about losing isn't going to do anything but please him." Vash sighed, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against Kiyotaka's shaking shoulder. "You're not going to get anywhere if you keep acting like you are right now. You and I both know that."

"And what about your father? Am I supposed to sit by and just let this happen?" His deflating voice beginning to shake. "Because we both know I can't just leave you to suffer on your own. We both know I'm not just going to sit by and let you stay here, fearing punishment when you've done nothing wrong."

"You can't-" Vash sighed, trying to keep himself together, "you have to let me fight my own battles sometimes, Kiyo. If you just, if you trust me on this, I know I can fight this one on my own."

"I don't want to ever leave you alone again." Vash was taken by surprise when he was suddenly pulled tightly into the arms of Kiyotaka. He was stiff for a moment, slightly struggling in the rather harsh grasp before loosening up when he felt a choking sob rise up from the other's chest before forcing itself out as the taller party found his voice. "Please, Vash."

In a way, he had no idea why this was being asked of him. Why Kiyotaka was begging just to stay here, why he felt like he needed to do everything in his power to feel like he was in control of keeping him safe. But then again, he didn't understand everything that made the B rep tick. Instead, he only pressed his forehead to Kiyotaka's shaking shoulder and wrapped his arms around the waist of the shaking man.

"Look, nobody's going anywhere, okay? I'm right here and nobody's going to change that. Valvatorez might be a pain and my Dad an ass but they're not going to do anything. They're not going to make me disappear or leave, okay?"

"But you need to come to me when things aren't good," Kiyotaka whispered. "I want to be there when you need to be safe, I want to always make sure that nobody is hurting you. I don't want anybody to cause you any more suffering."

Vash sighed, squeezing his good eye shut. "Don't blame you for this. I should've seen this coming. It was my fault for telling him who I really am."

"You came out to your father?"

"And he hit me because of it."

"Did you tell your mother?"

"No." Vash mumbled. "I'm afraid to say anything, because I'm so worried that she actually does love him. That she wants to be with and loved by him. And if I ruined that, what if she hated me?"

The F Rep felt their positions shift, Kiyotaka slowly releasing Vash and scooting back so he could look down at Vash, his emerald eyes damp and red. "Nobody could ever hate you for something you didn't do. Nobody would be mad at you for what your father did to you."

The shorter man felt himself cease up, tears beginning to form in his eyes as he really thought about what had happened. A family member hit him. And for no reason other than admitting to his true self in front of them. He had been struck and punished for something when he did nothing at all wrong.

Why was he suffering for being himself?

Why did his father hate him so much?

"Why doesn't he love me, Kiyo?" Vash choked, beginning to crumple down only for the taller man to pull him into his arms, tears and snot beginning to stain his shirt. "I've never done anything but try my best to get him to love me! I tried to be the perfect son! I did my best to get good grades, I went to sports games with him so he'd think we liked the same things, I always did more than he asked of me! I wanted him to love me so bad, but it was never enough! He never gave a damn about me no matter how hard I tried!"

Having come from a stable family with two loving parents, this absolutely shattered Kiyotaka. He had known this day would eventually come, where Vash would finally realize how unfair this truly was and break down because of it. He rested his hand against Vash's soft black hair, the other arm holding him tightly as a quiet shushing sound left his lips.

"He never deserved a son like you. He never deserved somebody so kind, smart and skilled and it's going to be only his loss. You're going to grow up to be a strong man and one day, he's going to regret everything he's done, but you're going to be above him. He doesn't deserve anything from you, Vash."

For what felt like an eternity, Kiyotaka sat there on the floor, trying not to cry a little himself while rocking Vash gently in his arms as the shorter man cried his eyes out. He wasn't always the best person to comfort those crying, but when it came to Vash, it felt natural. He wanted to kiss him everywhere, from those tear stained cheeks to his soft pouty lips. But now wasn't the time.

And then he felt something pricking his leg, slowly opening his eyes to find a calico kitten stabbing into his uniform pants with her razor sharp claws.

"A cat?"

Vash slowly shifted, moving his head from Kiyotaka's chest and trying to chuckle, his gunked up nose making it sound rather off. "Oh, Milk." He slowly reached out, scooping the kitten up and into his arms. "Sorry, did I scare you? I'm alright, promise."

The B Rep's brow furrowed, the sight of the animal having caught him more than a little off guard. "A cat?"

"Yeah," Vash sighed fondly, stroking the beginning to purr kitten. "Haruhi jumped to her usual conclusions and figured if I was going to feel better about myself, I needed to get a cat. And instead of asking me about it, she just showed up with Milk and all the supplies I could possibly need."

A smile crept onto his lips. "It suits you."

"Huh?"

"You've always been more nurturing than Haruhi or I, so it suits you to have something to take care of and love." Kiyotaka said, leaning against Vash's shoulder as the shorter student blushed slightly.

"Is that a good thing?"

"Of course."

Vash opened his eyes to say something else, but found himself quieting as the front door was fiddled with and began to open, both men bracing for the worst.

"Vash? ...Kiyotaka?"

The gentle voice of Noko Tanaka filled both of their ears, collective relief flooding the room before disappearing when she got a good look at the obvious evidence of their crying. "Oh my, boys, what's the matter?"

* * *

The thing that had always fascinated Kiyotaka about Noko was how quick she was to try and repair something when she saw fit. In a way, she reminded him a lot of Vash with how easily flustered but good natured she was. Instead of prying into details, she instead insisted Kiyotaka to stay and for both of them to explain the situation to her over a pot of tea. She hadn't even asked about the cat yet, instead skirting around that fact to try and pry the reason for crying out of them before anything else.

Being more of a coffee person, the B Rep had hoped to avoid both the drink and the conversation, but Noko wouldn't hear it, refusing to let him inch away for even a second.

So there they both were, red eyed and sitting at the table, nervously waiting for when she sat down and began grilling them for answers. Vash had seemed pretty relieved that Noko had taken the whole 'suddenly having a pet cat' thing well enough, but Kiyotaka wasn't sure just how much he was willing to say when it came to what was about to go down. Would he tell the truth about why the two were so worked up, or would they be lying.

He glanced over at Vash, trying to silently notify him that he would be following his lead, to which the F Rep only nodded slowly. His mind and heart were racing, panic and the feeling of being trapped growing almost too impossible to bear.

"You two do know you can talk to me about anything, right?"

Noko set the teapot down before retrieving three cups and filling them up. She seemed bewildered, but was doing her best to keep herself composed, afraid of scaring them into saying nothing otherwise. "There isn't a thing in the world either of you could say to ever make me stop caring about the both of you. Alright?"

"Yes."

"Of course, Mom."

"So can you both tell me what's wrong?"

Kiyotaka looked to Vash, chewing at loose skin on his lip as he silently wondered just what Vash would comfortably own up to in those moments. The shorter male's hands slowly slid up, beginning to fiddle with his glasses. "It's just that, I..."

She sat across from both of them, taking a drink of tea before focusing on her only child. "Vash, honey, it's alright." Reaching out and gripping one of his hands in her own.

"I-I," his voice was shaking, surprising even Vash as he cleared his throat in an attempt to help himself calm down. "Remember yesterday, when I told you I got this black eye at school, because my class was fighting and I was hit with debris?"

"Er, yes?"

"Well," he took in a deep breath, shifting nervously. "That isn't, that's not what happened to me."

She straightened up in her seat, squeezing his hand tightly in her own. "Then what exactly happened?"

"D-... Mom, Dad hit me."

For a moment, everything was absolutely silent, the F Rep trying to steal his nerves while keeping his eyes dry. He worried about how she would react, feared a negative response that would seethe hate when all he wanted in those moments was to be loved.

But only horror was on her quickly paling face. "He HIT you? But why? Why would he ever do that?"

"Because I said something he didn't want to hear."

"And that was?"

Here it was, the moment of truth that Vash had feared. The moment of putting everything on the line once again. He knew what he wanted to hear and was terrified of anything else leaving her lips. "I told him that I was, that I am, that I'm gay." Pinching his open blue eye tightly shut, bracing for the worst.

But in those moments when his eyes were shut, Noko's expression grew from surprised to knowing, her eyes softening as she looked to Kiyotaka. She nodded slowly to him before mouthing what the B Rep thought was 'thank you' before turning back to her son. Kiyo thought he felt his heart stop in those moments, wondering just what he could have possibly done to earn some sort of thanks from the woman. He wasn't dating Vash, at least not right now. So why would she think to thank him?

The sensation of his mother squeezing his hand took Vash by surprise, opening his eye to see his parent smiling back at him. "I think, I think a part of me always knew that you weren't interested in girls. I guess I was just waiting for you to tell me yourself before I thought much of it."

"You're not upset?" Vash found himself whispering, his voice cracking.

"Honey, of course not!" The boys watched her rise from her seat before pulling her child into her arms and holding him tight. "There is nothing in the world that you could ever tell me that would make me stop loving you! I can't stop loving you anymore than you could change who you are. If you're gay, then you're gay. You're always going to be my baby and I'm always going to love you."

Kiyotaka could only watch as his friend began to crumple into the arms of his mother, beginning to cry tears of relief as she cradled him, pressing a loving kiss to his forehead before glancing up at Kiyotaka who was getting up from his chair to leave them be. He slightly bowed to her to thank her for the tea while she only smiled. Maybe she knew that he had pushed Vash to say something, or maybe she knew that Kiyotaka loved her son with all his heart. Whatever it was, he was just glad to see mother and son together, to see Vash feeling loved and accepted.

He slipped on his shoes and headed out the door, closing it behind him before reaching for his cell phone. He felt his fingers tap against the worn keys as the warm late June air whisked by. He chewed at his lip, smiling slightly as he listened to it dial and ring.

"Hello?"

Just the sound of the voice felt nice. "Mother?"

"Oh, Kiyotaka! I haven't heard your voice in so long!"

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" He found himself chuckling as he began to walk home. He knew she'd be home in three weeks or so and that his father would be home sometimes around then. But after seeing Noko, he couldn't help but yearn for the affection of either of his parents. "I was hoping we could just talk."

"Of course, love, I'd be happy to."

That sensation of love, he could only imagine how strong it must have been for Vash back there. A smile spread across his lips as he tried to think of everything he'd want to say to his mother.

It felt good to be accepted.

It felt good to be loved.


	11. The Yunokawa Onsen

_Hey guys,_

 _I don't really think anybody is checking this little series out anymore, but hey, if anybody is, I'd love to hear from you guys about anything. After all, I can only ever improve if I'm told everything and anything I'm doing wrong. If you're here, thank you so much for giving me time out of your day, it means a lot to me. I totally get what it's like to be busy, college and all, so it's super sweet to know people might take time out of their busy lives to check out my baby project._

 _This chapter is hilariously long compared to most, but I'd be a liar if I said this was the longest chapter I've written for this series. I'm like ten or so chapters ahead of this one, and there is one a bit later on that is about double the size of this one. But, we'll worry about that when we get there. Until then, thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy it._

 _Kiha_

* * *

"A hot spring?"

"You've got to be kidding me."

Haruhi couldn't deny that she didn't like the looks she was being given, the girl shifting positions as she pursed her lips together. She'd been so excited that she could barely contain herself and yet, here the both of them were at the end of her tangent, staring at her as if she'd just said something horrific.

Vash seemed to be reddening at the idea of spending time at an onsen in Hakodate while Kiyotaka was only staring at Haruhi in the hopes of catching a glimpse at a sign of her kidding around. But her expression didn't change.

"No, I'm being completely serious! It's going to be great! They have these huge bath rooms, and the hot springs are absolutely beautiful." Haruhi handed Kiyotaka the brochure before he could think of contesting her, something he took without a word. "And the best part? Everything's already paid for, so we don't have to pool money together or anything!

Kiyotaka was nose deep into the informational brochure, leaving Vash to look up at Haruhi with his brows knit. "Wait." He gave a pause so he could think through the implications. "You're asking us about going, even though the entire trip has already been fully paid for and booked?"

"Exactly!"

Kiyotaka's lips curled into a scowl. "Then why ask us in the first place if you already spent the money and made the plans?" The brochure still firmly in his grasp as Vash peered over the B Rep's shoulder to try and get an idea of what went on at this resort.

"I didn't think you would get so mad when I offered you a completely free vacation!"

"You didn't exactly ask either of us what we would have wanted to do for a trip, did you!?"

"Well sorry for being nice!"

"The hot springs don't allow any type of clothing?"

Both of them turned to look at Vash, who seemed beyond uncomfortable as he looked up from the brochure, hand reaching up and adjusting his glasses. "You're taking us to a hot spring where all of the springs are meant to be used when you're naked?"

"Yeah?" Haruhi said, completely unfazed. "Have you ever seen somebody go to a hot spring wearing a bathing suit or something like that?"

Vash had never been to a hot spring before, but the thought of being so exposed left a rock in his gut as he found himself slowly pulling his knees to his chest, fiddling with his yellow F tie.

He tended not to dwell on it, but Vash did have more than a little bit of an issue when it came to his body, said issue being that he had zero confidence in just how he looked. He'd been this way for over a year now and yet, the teenager was used to spending a few minutes every morning inspecting himself. He focused on the things he wasn't too fond of and silently lamented over the fact that he wasn't really given an easy fix. His metabolism just decided to slow down its work and left him as he was.

Maybe it upset him because his perception of masculinity came with the concept of hardened muscles and a protecting feel, instead of emotional instability, soft skin and curves. Or maybe he just feared that his body would change perceptions of people he barely knew, that he'd be seen as one thing before he had a chance to make those people see otherwise.

But the concept of going into the men only spring, with only a small towel covering his genitals when it wasn't in the water mortified him. Everything would be exposed, right there for Kiyotaka to see and judge. He'd seen Vash shirtless during their first year, but that had happened the day the three had split, so he doubted that the image of the mathematician was what Kiyo recalled from that night. Vash couldn't wash away the image of what he must've looked like, with everything he hated about his body, from his stomach to his lips being exposed, but he'd soothed himself by promising that that couldn't have been the most memorable event of the night.

"That isn't going to be a big deal, is it?" Haruhi muttered, looking at how red Vash was beginning to become. "Is it going to be a whole thing if you have to be around all those naked guys?" The girl figuring that he might not want to be surrounded by men if he wasn't exactly shy about being attracted to the same sex

"No! It's not that!" Vash blushed, shaking his head frantically. "It's just that, well, I," he couldn't get it out, afraid that admitting he was insecure with himself would make Haruhi desperate to over correct the situation only to make it so much worse. "It's nothing, just forget I said anything."

"Uh, alright." Haruhi muttered, although she continued to focus on him, clearly not buying that this was just nothing. "But honestly, you guys don't have anything to lose! It's gonna be fun and you don't have to pay!"

"Haruhi, I-" Kiyotaka going to interject only for her to cut him off.

"It's not like you two had any plans to begin with anyways," her lower lip sliding into a bit of a pout, "and I bet your parents would love to see you guys go out and do something instead of staying at home and doing absolutely nothing."

"My parents just got home after being away for three m-"

"Like I said, I'm almost positive that they'd love to see you guys go out and do something with your lives."

The two boys turned to stare at one another, clearly figuring something was very wrong with this set up. But Vash's eyes began to soften up, as if trying to rationalize what Haruhi was saying, even if it didn't exactly sit well with him. But the look in his blue eyes alone were enough to get the cold emeralds of the B Rep to lose a bit of their chill, knowing if Vash was willing to go through with it, there was no way he could say no.

"Alright," mumbled Kiyotaka, staring up at Haruhi with a slightly threatening look. "We'll go."

"You mean it?!" Those sparkling brown eyes quickly began to fill with the excitement the C Rep was all to known for. "Trust me, you won't regret this!" Her voice becoming louder the more excited she became.

"We can only hope so." Returned the B representative as he looked back over to Vash, who was feigning excitement even worse than Kiyo was. Anybody looking for it could pinpoint just how pale the student was beginning to become, the mere thought of what they were doing and what came with that was enough to get him practically sick with concern and dread.

He just wasn't secure enough in himself to be comfortable with what was going to happen.

Especially when he barely knew where he stood with Kiyotaka at this point.

* * *

"Yusuke! Hold on!"

Sixteen year old Yusuke Kobayashi was exhausted, but found himself perking up at the sound of Haruhi's shouting. Somehow she always managed to appear when he found himself least expecting her and it always resulted in his heart skipping a beat or two before he could properly return to his reality.

He set his sports bag down as the girl came rushing down the baseball field, most of the team only responding with eyerolls, all too familiar with Haruhi showing up to cheer for Yusuke alone, even if they were just practices.

Nobody was sure just why he openly gave her the time of day, but she seemed to make Yusuke happy in her own bizarre way and that was good enough for them. But when the both of them began to use one another's first names was when things became a little more interesting. The team had basically bet one another on who would kiss who first and who would ultimately be the one to make a love confession.

"Haruhi?" The excitement in her eyes caught him off guard slightly, the man surprised to be greeted by something he recognized wasn't a typical 'glad to see you' excited. "Is something going on?"

"No. Nothing's wrong." She shook her head quickly. "I was just wanting to ask you something about your summer break."

"What about it?" He was wiping leftover beads of sweat from his forehead, Haruhi seeming to take note but not seeming put off by it.

"Well, it's just that," she brought herself to smile, albeit somewhat nervously. "I was making some plans for summer break and I was wondering if maybe you'd be interested in coming with."

His face began to flush. "What sort of plans?" The player trying not to focus on his swarming team and the whispers that were firing through the crowd. He could only imagine what horrible ideas they were sharing with one another.

"Well, I was given some money by my mother and her friends and I managed to book a room at the Yunokawa onsen and I was going to head there with my friends." Her left foot was nervously running itself against the dirt of the baseball field, her hazel eyes zeroed in on Yusuke. "And I was hoping maybe you'd want to go with the three of us."

"An onsen!?"

"Oh finally! Go for it Kobayashi!"

"Shut up!" He fired back at the team, the snickering men beginning to gather their things so they could begin to head home, but when he turned back to focus on Haruhi he couldn't help but notice that she'd turned crimson. "Did you say the three of you?"

"Mhmm, Vash and Taka are going with me."

Oh.

Haruhi had been so closed off about the subject of the F and B Reps only three months before and although she was more than happy to drone on and on about them now, Yusuke was never completely sure about them. He'd figured with the somewhat sloppy past the three had, there would be some sort of muddy area that they would confront when they finally got a chance to speak again.

But instead they just picked right back up where they were before and never touched those two months of silence. To Yusuke, it felt like a serious red flag and proof that their relationship wasn't as solid as the three seemed to believe it was. He worried they were a lot more unstable that they thought, but there was no way he could openly discuss his concerns regarding the trio's relationships with one another. Not when he was somewhat afraid of one of them and he was without a doubt afraid of what Haruhi would do if she found out he thought their friendship needed more than a little fixing

"So you want me to go with you, Nensho and Tanaka to an onsen?"

"Yup!"

Haruhi clearly didn't see something wrong with this, but Yusuke wasn't all too surprised by how oblivious she was.

"That's a lot to drop on somebody,." Yusuke mumbled, running his fingers through his brown hair and thinking through it slowly, his brown eyes looking from his dirty sports shoes to Haruhi's own hazel irises. God, the smile on her lips said it all, getting his heart to skip a beat.

"It's already all paid for." Haruhi added.

So he was being offered a trip he wouldn't even have to pay for, with a girl that he'd begun to grow rather close to, with the only drawback being the two people she was bringing with her? He barely knew the two of them and it did make him more than a little nervous, but he knew it would be a little foolish to turn something like this up. At minimum, it wasn't going to cost him a single thing.

"You know, that actually sounds really nice." He found himself smiling slowly at the sight of her own eyes filling with excitement. "I'd love to go to Hakodate with you three."

"I know you won't regret this!" She shouted, throwing her arms around him tightly, basically disregarding the fact that he'd just finished a long practice and was still rather sweaty. "We're going to have the best time, Yusuke!"

He could only hope so, resting his chin against her shoulder as he slowly wrapped his arms around her. He was a little surprised by the physical affection but knew if he made something out of it, she might be too reluctant to make any moves towards him anytime soon. "I'm sure we will."

He'd only met her in April and yet, something about the aura she carried with herself left him hoping she'd never want to leave his side. Maybe she could be a little childish, or preoccupied with things that didn't mean all that much in the long run, but she always seemed to have a smile to offer when things felt a little crushing or the entire class looked like it would implode on itself.

Of course his team would be giving him crap for this by tomorrow, but in those moments, he just couldn't bring himself to care.

All he could really bring himself to do in those moments was hold her tightly, eager to see just where their paths would lead them.

* * *

Haruhi had insisted picking up Yusuke and heading to the train station with him, which left Kiyotaka and Vash to walk to the station together. Vash's fingers were practically white from how tight his grip on his bag was, the F Rep trying his hardest not to dwell on the things in this trip that made him feel nervous. But every time there would be a pause, he found find his eyes beginning to scan up the more hardened body of Kiyotaka before they would sink down to look back at what he had settled around his middle.

This would always get him back to feeling nervous and self conscious. He couldn't imagine bringing it up to Kiyotaka, figuring the B Rep would only wave him off as if Vash's own insecurities were nothing to worry over. He'd barely batted an eyelash when the shorter male's metabolism decided to shift and even now, Vash had no idea what Kiyotaka felt when it came to his body. Not that he could ask him now, no, he could only imagine that further deepening the trench that separated the two of them.

"Have you ever been to an onsen before?" Vash found himself asking, trying to keep the silence away in the hopes that speaking would drive away the insecurities stabbing themselves into his chest.

"Maybe once or twice when I was younger." Shrugged Kiyotaka, not thinking much into it. "I don't really remember much about it."

"I've never been to one," He found himself admitting, looking down at his shoes. "I guess I should be excited, but at the same time I can't keep myself from feeling a little nervous."

"I don't blame you." Shrugged Kiyotaka. "Haruhi was the one who planned the whole thing. We don't exactly have a clue about what she plans on doing with us while we're there."

"I'm sure it's not awful or anything." Vash mumbled, mostly for his own sake. He should have figured they'd both be anxiety ridden for different reasons, but this didn't quell his panic as much as he'd hoped it would. "She wouldn't plan a trip just to torture us."

Well, after the few months Vash had just gone through, Kiyotaka was sure Haruhi wouldn't have it in her to put him through any more suffering. She'd been a little more delicate around him lately and Kiyotaka always found it interesting, to see her attempt to baby him in a painfully obvious way. He figured Vash didn't call her out on it because he worried about upsetting her in the process, but in truth, he was sure Vash was just grateful to have people he knew he'd always be safe with.

"I suppose you're right," Kiyotaka admitted, drawing in a heavy breath. "It'll be nice to soak in a hot spring for the first time in a long time anyways."

And right back to the anxiety fueled voice telling him he should be ashamed of himself.

Vash wished his cheeks wouldn't heat up into a blotchy red color, but he could do nothing but hope it would fade before Kiyotaka began to worry. "Yeah, it'll be nice."

The B Rep noticed the heavy blushing that began to overtake Vash's cheeks, but couldn't get a word out of his mouth before he was interrupted.

"Vash! Taka! Over here!"

The two men had reached the station, both Haruhi and Yusuke standing out in front of it, with the C Rep excitedly waving at the both of them.

Hold on.

"Kobayashi?" Kiyotaka asked, looking at the baseball player in surprise before his cold green eyes zeroed in on Haruhi. "I didn't hear that you were coming with."

God, he could be scary when he wanted to, Yusuke trying to ignore the way Kiyotaka looked at Haruhi while nervously clearing his throat. "Oh? Well, Haruhi asked me if I would come with you guys a few days ago and I figured you two wouldn't mind."

"No, no, we don't mind at all." Vash tried to ignore how frustrated this made Kiyotaka, offering Yusuke a slight smile while reaching up to fiddle with his glasses. "The more, well, uh, the more the merrier?"

"Exactly! And this will give you two a chance to get to know Yusuke!" Haruhi said, looking directly into Kiyotaka's eyes to show just how little she feared him. No, in fact she wasn't going to put up with it, the girl taking a bold step forward with her hands on her hips, looking up at him with a cheeky smile. "You guys should know each other, since you're the three most important people I have in my life~!"

Vash tried to ignore how this statement seemed to made Yusuke redden, figuring saying anything would make things painfully awkward. So instead, he brought himself to clear his throat. "So, uh, we have a train to catch."

"Oh!" Haruhi nodded, picking her bag up and slipping it over her shoulder. "You're right! We better hurry or else, we'll miss it!" And it didn't take a lot of thought for Haruhi to recall that she couldn't afford another four tickets to Hakodate.

They'd managed to catch their train with enough time to find seats and get settled, something Haruhi was silently beyond grateful for. The ride there wasn't exactly very vocal, with the four of them mostly just sitting there. It wasn't that anybody was upset or frustrated with the change of plans, but more that nobody really had anything to say for most of it.

Kiyotaka had his nose in a book in an attempt to narrow his focus and avoid thinking about the movement of the train, while Vash tried to ignore how bizarre it felt that Haruhi brought along a guy she hadn't known all that long. He'd packed a booklet of shogi puzzles to solve, but he just couldn't keep himself from looking up every once in a while to take note of the situation as it stood.

It was even more bizarre to Vash that he felt more aware of their chemistry and feelings for one another than they were. If it were anybody but Haruhi, he'd have assumed they brought the man they were interested in in the hopes that they could finally confess their true feelings. But from the look in Haruhi's eyes, she had no malicious intent, just hoping for Vash and Kiyotaka to bond with the baseball player.

And then they arrived in Hakodate.

Haruhi wasn't one for staying still and within moments of the train stopping, the girl was already out on the platform and trying to pop her back into place after the four hour train ride. The smell of the sea air was almost instant and it left her heart practically racing with excitement for what was just ahead.

The others weren't quite as eager as she was, at least in those first few moments, taking their time to exit the train before taking their own turns at looking around the area.

Maybe it was the length of the ride, but Vash was somewhat impressed by the sudden view. Far off in the distance rested a mountain and from the sight of the now bare cherry blossom trees, the mathematician could only imagine what this town must've looked like when Spring pushed them into full bloom. He had done a little reading about where they would be spending their time and wouldn't deny, he liked the idea of sitting in one of the warm outdoor baths and watching the squid fishing boats head out to sea as the sun set.

But then again, he would have to give up the idea of being in that bath alone. Maybe he'd thought about being in there with Kiyotaka before, but whenever he did, it was always just so he could try and imagine what the B Rep looked like.

And what he felt like.

The thought of a distorted version of himself always twisted those moments, that curiosity and near desperation to understand the figure of a person he'd known since his child being torn from him and replaced by panic. One moment, he'd been envisioning something he wanted so badly, and then it would be torn from him, leaving the man with his hands on himself, loathing what he had and knowing he was nothing short of disgusting.

"Alright, let's hurry up!" Haruhi said, snapping Vash out of his thoughts before he could sink any further into them. "I managed to get us a room in a ryokan right next to the onsen! So we'll have a lot of time to relax when we get there!"

Before anybody could say otherwise, Haruhi began to pick up the pace, having done enough research to gage just how to get to the place. This left the three men to trail behind her in the hopes of keeping her in their lines of sight.

* * *

"Tada!"

Haruhi was practically dancing as her feet hit the tatami mats of the living area, carefully moving around the table that was set up in the middle.

Yusuke set his shoes aside before looking around, watching Haruhi excitedly open the sliding doors to reveal a view of the sea along with the Yunokawa onsen only a short walk away. She seemed too thrilled for words and he had to admit, however she managed to afford this did impress him quite a bit. He glanced back at the other two, trying to figure out exactly how they felt, as Vash seemed to mostly keep his eyes down while Kiyotaka just seemed to be observing the room, Yusuke unsure if he was looking for flaws or if he was simply curious

How the three of them managed was beyond him, but he knew if he wanted to get closer to Haruhi, he'd have to get to know the two of them and hopefully gain their favor.

"You guys like it, right?" Haruhi looking over to her childhood friends, seeming almost desperate for approval.

"I still have no idea how you managed to afford this." Kiyotaka muttered while Vash only looked around, realizing that there wasn't much more to this room than a living space.

"Er, Haruhi?"

"Yes~?"

"Are we all staying in this one room? Even when we're sleeping?"

She paused, lip slowly poking out into a pout as she thought about it. Well, of course they would, wouldn't they? They'd just pull out futons and sleep in the same space just like they did when they were little kids!

Oh wait.

"Yusuke!" Haruhi suddenly shouted, taking all three of them by surprise with her sudden outburst. "I totally forgot that you were co-, I mean, well, it's just, we don't have separate rooms or anything! It'll just be the four of us, on the floor, in one little space." Her cheeks began to stain pink at the realization, hoping he wouldn't find it weird.

"Uhm," he was a more than a little surprised by her words, which had only made Yusuke feel more uncomfortable than if he'd found out this was the sleeping arrangement when it was time to sleep. "Look, it'll all be fine." He was quick to say, trying to keep her from imploding on herself so quickly into this adventure.

Yusuke could feel two pairs of pitying eyes on him and it brought him to internally chuckle, the baseball player realizing that Vash and Kiyotaka probably didn't feel agitated by him being with them so much as they felt bad that Haruhi had dragged him all the way out here as part of a half baked plan.

"But, Taka?" Haruhi muttered as she began to head back to their door, reaching out and gripping his arm. "Think you could come with me to go get drinks? I think I saw a vending machine near the front of the building."

He probably would've said something, but before he could get anything out, Haruhi had the both of them out of the door and heading down the hallway. Her strength never failed to catch the swimmer off guard, wide emerald eyes surveying her as he accepted his sudden role in this vending machine excursion.

"Is something the matter?" He found himself asking as they began walking, trying to pull his arm out of her tight and somewhat painful grip. Unfortunately, Haruhi wasn't having any of this as she only held onto him tighter when he attempted to jerk his limb free.

"I know you're not thrilled about Yusuke coming with, or about being here in general, but this is very important." The C Rep said, her grip becoming all the tighter. She wasn't looking up at him, but their steps were becoming synchronized, the sound lulling in his ears.

"Why?"

"You can't say anything to Vash."

Kiyotaka stopped walking, Haruhi stopping just a few steps in front of him with hand still wrapped around his now painfully extended arm. Suddenly his once sharp eyes were widened, an openness that only came when Vash was the topic of discussion. "Is it serious?"

She nodded, biting at her lip. "Noko finally decided that she needed to get rid of that awful husband of hers."

"She's kicking him out?"

"Divorcing him." Haruhi said, a smile spreading onto her lips while her eyes began to water slightly. "She wanted to get Vash out of the house so he wouldn't be in the line of fire, so she got together with your and my mother and they gave me the money to organize this trip."

"All of this, so she could remove him without putting Vash through any more suffering?"

The C Rep nodded, dabbing at her eyes with her free hand. "After all this time, we won't have to spend our nights terrified that something would happen to him. We're not going to have to live in fear of Vash being hurt, because Gerard won't be there to put him through hell anymore. He's going to be safe for the first time in his life." Her dabbing proving unsuccessful as she found talking about it only made her eyes water more.

Every time she looked at Vash, all she could see were the healing remains of that horrible black eye. All she could remember was holding him tightly in her arms while he sobbed, unable to self soothe any longer.

"I'm just so glad this is finally ending." Haruhi sniffled, feeling her hand slowly returning to her side as Kiyotaka approached, the swimmer pulling her into his arms. This wasn't exactly like him, so she couldn't help but press against his chest, surprised by the sudden touch. "This is all we've ever wanted."

Kiyotaka rested his chin against her hairline, drawing in a heavy breath as he ran a hand against the small of her back in an attempt to soothe her. "Thank you for taking us here." Although they hadn't done anything yet, he knew where his focus had to stay now.

"Just promise me you won't breathe a word of this to Vash or Yusuke, alright?"

"Of course." Kiyotaka promised as Haruhi began to wriggle herself out of his grip, offering him a slightly teary smile.

"And now, to get those drinks!" She said, taking ahold of his arm as she began to walk down the hallway, leaving the taller student with no choice but to walk right beside her.

"Do you really need to hold my arm?" He muttered, slightly embarrassed.

"Well, I don't need to," Haruhi snickered, tightening her grip and grinning at the sight of pink dusting his cheeks. "But it makes you embarrassed and I think we look precious together. So I'm not going to let go."

* * *

After arriving at the onsen, things became a little awkward for Yusuke since Haruhi wasn't allowed to follow the three anymore. She seemed to have forgotten that for a moment, as when the sight of the women and mens' only signs caught her attention, the fact that she'd be all by herself struck her for the first time since she'd planned the would've figured that she thought that rather huge detail through, but from the look in her eyes, Haruhi hadn't realized that she'd be going into the bath with only strangers until that moment.

But this trip wasn't about her. It was all about Vash.

She did her best to put on her brave face, glancing back to Kiyotaka as if to ask him to make sure he focused on the mathematician, to which she only got a brisk nod before heading off to the women's' changing rooms.

Now it was only Yusuke and the other two, and he couldn't help but feel less eager about the trip than he did before.

But to his surprise, he was the one to head towards the changing area with the least amount of hesitation. Vash was only looking down, watching every step he took as if each step was pushing him closer to some form of doom, as if he was about to face some form of unholy punishment instead of walking towards the supposed highlight of a trip that their friend had planned for them.

"Are you alright?"

He fiddled with his glasses, looking up into Kiyotaka's concerned eyes and only nodding slowly. "Oh, uh, yeah, everything's fine." His voice more of a squeak than he would have liked.

"If you're uncomfortable, we don't have to stay." The B Rep's voice soft as he tried to offer the clearly distressed man a way out

Vash considered accepting this offer, in cutting his losses and getting out of there before things could begin to get awkward, but he just couldn't find it in himself. Not when Haruhi had planned everything and seemed so eager for them to enjoy themselves. "No, I don't want to leave." He found himself saying, internally kicking himself for being a decent person. "I'm sure it'll be relaxing."

But then he looked up, seeing a few men casually removing their clothing and putting them away before heading to the baths. Turning his head, he could already see Yusuke nonchalantly removing his own shirt, exposing his upper body to the somewhat flustered Vash.

He wished he wasn't so terrified of his own body, but the racing of his heart screamed to get out of there before somebody could judge him. A shaking hand rested itself against the soft fibers of his own shirt, a heavy breath exiting his lungs. He slowly turned to look at Kiyotaka, afraid that the B Rep would be watching him when he undressed.

But to his shock, he instead found the taller student casually removing his pants, already shirtless. Vash was trying not to stare, but he found himself looking all the while, with his mouth slightly open.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Kiyotaka noticed Vash's staring, chuckling slightly as he stood there in only his boxer shorts. He seemed all too comfortable in his own skin, his slightly muscular body basically on display, which only made Vash brighter red.

"Yeah! Everything's fine!" He was quick to say, trying to look away.

"You do remember that you have to remove your clothes before they'll let you in, right?" The B Rep seemed far too amused by this for Vash's likeing, his fingertips brushing against the shorter man's back. He figured he wouldn't be able to get away with touching the front of the shirt, not with how protectively the mathematician held his towel in front of his abdomen.

"I know that." Vash muttered. "I'm just, I'm not used to people seeing me... exposed."

"Do you want us to leave you alone?" That us being a little obsolete since Yusuke had already headed off to the bathing area before he could enter the onsen.

"That might help," Vash nodded slowly, fiddling with his glasses and looking away when Kiyotaka removed his undergarments. Before he could consider taking a peak, the sound of the B Rep walking out of the room rang in his ears, Vash unsure if he should sigh in relief or silently curse himself for being too shy to look.

 _How can he be so comfortable when he's naked like that? Why is everybody so comfortable with themselves?_

"Alright, Vash, everything is fine." He muttered to himself, looking down at the soft cotton and trying to compromise with himself by instead unbuttoning his pants before setting his fingers on his shirt. He still felt the slight nervousness at being less restricted than before, slowly removing his pants and boxers before drawing in a heavy breath. "Okay, come on, it's just a shirt. Everybody here already knows that you're, well, okay, we both know what, we don't have to say it. But that's fine, you just have to take your shirt off."

He didn't want to, but he knew he had to, his hands slowly pulling at the bottom of his shirt before he had it over his head and off his body. Vash found himself drawing in a breath, hoping if he just sucked it in, nobody would ever notice the damage that his metabolism has caused. He couldn't bare to look at himself naked, silently wishing it was Kiyotaka and Yusuke who had impaired vision instead of him so that he didn't have to worry about what they saw after he removed his glasses.

"It'll all be okay," he whispered to himself, removing his glasses and setting them away with his folded clothing. "Nobody will think any less of you, they already know. How can they be surprised by something they've already known about you?"

He managed to get into the cleaning area without much trouble, going about his business soaping and rinsing himself off while trying to ignore the pounding of his heart. He would've figured by now he'd have grown used to the body he'd had for the part year and yet, he felt just as awkward as ever.

Blindly trying to reach the hot spring was a little more frustrating, the mathematician squinting and trying his best to navigate without asking for any help. He mostly did this by trying to follow the objects he could tell were people, mentally cursing his nearsightedness for continuing to be the bane of his existence. One hand was tightly gripped against the towel covering his crotch and his chest was slightly puffed out from trying to keep everything in "place", but he managed to reach the spring soon enough.

"Everything alright?"

Kiyotaka's voice caught Vash off guard as he entered the onsen, he found himself quite violently blushing as he set the towel aside, sinking into the hot water. He couldn't bear to look up at whatever features his eyes could make out, instead trying to focus on the bubbling water below him.

"Everything's fine." Vash stammered, trying to display a shred of confidence before exhaling quite heavily. He could only hope the water was hiding what he didn't want seen.

"You're beyond tense." Kiyotaka tutted, his shoulder brushing against Vash's as the taller student leaned against the stone lining of the spring. "Is there something you're not comfortable with about the bath?"

"Well," Vash trailed off, shaking his head.

As much as Kiyotaka wanted to take Vash's chin, bluntly state what they both knew was bothering him and then get his own two cents on the matter out into the open, there was no way he was comfortable doing that in front of Yusuke and the other men just trying to enjoy a calming soak.

So instead, he only cleared his throat, glancing over to Yusuke. "So, Kobayashi, I've heard that your team advanced quite a ways in the Spring Koshien this year. I wasn't able to catch any of it, but I remember the school being in quite the uproar."

Yusuke jerked, somewhat surprised by the invitation to talk about his passion before the memories of the event struck him, his eyes lighting up with excitement. "Yeah! We were surprised we got in, since Hokkaido only has one bid and of all schools, they picked us. But we ended up placing sixth out of thirty two teams, it's not winning but it was, well, it was the most excited I'd been in a long time."

"I can imagine," Kiyotaka chucked. "Are you hoping to compete in the Summer one next year?"

"Well," Yusuke paused to give it thought, his elevation to third year next Summer meant that he'd be able to compete if he wanted to, but that meant instead of going on trips, he'd be playing baseball. "I think I'd want to." He said, but let those words sit in the back of his mind.

What if he enjoyed going on these trips with Haruhi and her friends and wanted to go on more?

Kiyotaka nodded, figuring if Yusuke managed to compete in the Summer Koshien next year, Haruhi would drag all of them out to Hyogo just to cheer him on. "And if you don't mind my asking, just what got you interested in baseball in the first place."

"Oh, I don't mind." Yusuke snickered. "I could go on and on about that. So when I was little..."

Vash went in and out of listening to Yusuke recall memories of learning to love baseball, trying to keep himself focused but finding himself distracted by the surrounding area. He squinted, trying to make out what specific things were as he pressed his back against the wall of the onsen. The sky was beginning to stain itself orange and he could hear the cries of seagulls following the fishing boats, which he could only assume were the orange and white blotches on an otherwise vast blue sea.

He could only imagine it was a prettier view when you had working eyes, but he found himself somewhat satisfied with it.

Although this event was leaving him tenser than he'd been in a while, Vash couldn't help but see of this seaside town as fairly safe. The almost quiet nature of the area, coupled with the humm of the sea and the song of seabirds left him feeling he'd even manage to get a decent night's sleep, since he wouldn't spend half his night trying to discern where his father was and if he should be concerned for the safety of himself and his mother.

A wet hand slowly rested against his healing eye, wishing the memory of that night would vanish, no matter that it was far from likely. He hoped his mother would remember to feed Milk and that she'd be alright without him. She'd seen his hesitation to go and only pushed him out the door, refusing to let him spend the first day or two of his summer break at home with her, banishing any thought of her being at risk without a second thought.

He couldn't understand why she'd done something like that, but he couldn't quite worry about that now that he was in Hakodate.

"And I guess after that, I knew I wanted to spend my life playing baseball. Nothing ever felt as good as being on that field."

"So you want to play professionally?"

"That's the plan." Yusuke nodded, running his wet fingers through his hair, causing it to slightly sloppily stick up. "What about you guys? Have you figured out what you wanted to do with your lives?"

"I want to be an accountant." Vash found himself blurting out, pausing and blushing slightly as he realized just how quickly he said that. "I'm no good in front of crowds, so teaching isn't really an option, but I know I want to work with math."

"You're good at math?" Yusuke blinked.

"He might as well see everything in the world as numbers." Kiyotaka said, snickering as the red in Vash's cheeks grew more powerful. "He could probably teach the fourth year A students math if he wanted to."

Yusuke made some sort of thoughtful noise, seeming to find amusement in this. "He's that good, huh?" Kiyotaka nodding quickly, the sight making Vash want to sink into the water. "And what about you, Nensho? What do you want to do?"

A pause.

Vash found himself a little interested, since Kiyotaka'd never really expressed a blatant interest in one career path. He'd never reached for one specific thing, never boldly proclaimed he was going to do something specific with his future. He'd always kept quiet, simply shrugging when asked what he planned on doing when he left High School as if he was somehow disconcerted with the idea of finding a career and a place for himself in the world.

Vash was always surprised by Kiyo's lack of a plan, since he'd grown up with parents absolutely married to their jobs. He'd been exposed to the field of law and to the world of business, and yet neither seemed to pull him in.

"Medicine." He then said, drawing in a heavy breath. "I think I want to become a doctor."

"Really?" Yusuke was somewhat surprised, since his idea of a doctor was somebody warm and open minded, eager to encourage their patients while remaining a source of knowledge and honesty. With Kiyotaka, he saw the knowledge and honesty, but none of the warmth. "Any reason?"

He fell silent, glancing down at the water. "Maybe it's a little strange to admit, but I haven't had much of a sense of purpose. The only time I ever really felt like I had some sense of meaning, a reason to exist and be, was when I was focused on something, or somebody, else entirely. So I'm beginning to think that if I spend my life taking care of others, maybe I'll find that sense of purpose that I've been looking for."

He felt that way? How come he'd never mentioned this before? Vash couldn't deny he felt a little betrayed that the first time he was hearing this was with somebody Kiyotaka didn't know well enough to call him by his first name.

"That makes sense," Yusuke shrugged. "I've heard worse reasons for somebody to want to go into a field."

Vash wanted to ask about this, but something got him to stop before he could get it out. Maybe because the question closest to his heart was: does trying to take care of me fill you with a sense of purpose? Maybe he feared asking this because it put them right back to square one; wondering where the two of them stood on the relationship spectrum. Vash's heart ached for something more than friendship, but his mind would argue against this desire by bringing up the memories of the night Kiyo confessed and how that ended in disaster.

Would things be different now that Kiyotaka had come out to everybody or would it be doomed to end up blowing up in Vash's face all over again?

Would he even give him the time of day when even the mathematician could barely look at himself?

Because of this, he couldn't bear to ask the questions digging into his skin.

* * *

"Oh! There you guys are!"

Vash slightly jumped at the sound of Haruhi's voice, somewhat relieved to at least be dressed at this point. He was a rather new dark blue yukata, one he had purchased the year before and was thrilled to see it still fit perfectly, wrapping it somewhat tightly around his middle to keep everything looking a little less... present.

She was rushing towards them in her own yukata, this one being white and decorated in a bright pink cherry blossom petal pattern, eyes lighting up. "So, was it as nice as I promised it would be?"

Vash nodded slowly, but fidgeted with his glasses while doing so. When seeing this, Haruhi glanced up at Kiyotaka, watching him slowly set a hand atop his own flat stomach while Vash wasn't looking.

This again? Haruhi had figured that would come back as a problem at some point in time, but she couldn't be in the mathematician's head every moment of the day. She could see the slightly pitying look in Kiyotaka's eyes as he glanced down at Vash, the girl figuring he was probably thinking the same thing she was.

"But we better get back," Haruhi snickered. "The ryokan management told me they'd be delivering a home cooked meal to us at twenty."

Yusuke pulled the sleeve of his grey Yukata back, looking up at her. "Haruhi, it's half past twenty." If they had delivered food, it was probably going to be cold.

"Oh." The C Rep muttered, frowning at the realization that maybe they should've talked through when and where to meet in light of this. She tried to force herself to smile when she noticed three sets of eyes on her. "Well, I'm sure it won't be bad?"

The eagerness to get something to eat was slightly pushed back by the realization that it wouldn't exactly be warm, but nobody could deny they were somewhat desperate to put something in their stomachs after soaking for so long.

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Yusuke said, trying to leave her feeling somewhat encouraged after watching her deflate and then fail to recover so quickly.

As they left the onsen, Vash finally got a chance to look around on their walk back, adjusting his glasses to help himself get a better look. He could see distant flickering lights scattered across the sea from the fishing boats, the sound of the water coupled with the clicking of his geta against the ground managed to lull him into a sense of calm that he hadn't allowed himself to reach when in the hot spring.

It really was a beautiful area when he took a closer look and now that the knot in his stomach was loosened, he found himself finally appreciating what he was looking at.

He couldn't help but hope that now that the terror of being seen exposed had passed he would be able to sit back and enjoy the rest of the trip without stressing out about things he could barely control. Not that the stress had done anything to help the matter in the first place, in fact, it might have only made things a little worse.

But now, without that stress, he hoped he'd be able to relax.

"Well, I think I could salvage this."

When they got back to the ryokan, the quartet found two things: a fully cooked meal that had already grown cold and four unpacked futons ready for whenever they decided to sleep. They'd sat down to get something into them, but it was silently awkward, with Haruhi looking from one man to the other and growing more distressed the longer she looked. Everybody was trying not to seem ungrateful, but with the hardened rice, stone cold miso soup and the Hakodate specialty, squid, having grown soggy, it wasn't a meal they were eager to dig into.

"Haruhi," Vash muttered, trying not to cringe at the sensation of the stone like rice against his teeth. "Don't worry about it. We were all late, not just you."

"I know." She retorted, a slight smile beginning to creep onto her lips. "I'm not going to worry about it because I think I got something that will make this a little more fun." Getting up and retrieving the bag she'd taken with her when she dragged Kiyotaka along to go get drinks. She smiled at the B Rep who only shook his head slowly, clearly smirking while feigning some sort of moral high ground.

Yusuke's brow knit. "What's that all about?"

"Well," Haruhi snickered, looking back to Kiyotaka. "Back when Taka and I left to go get drinks, the original plan was just to get sodas, but we found a vending machine in the Ryokan's entrance that carries something more exciting."

And to the surprise of those who hadn't gone, Haruhi proceeded to pull a couple small and recognizable glass bottles from her bag. "We got sake!" She practically shouted, realizing how loud she was and blushing slightly.

"Alcohol?" Vash gaped, unable to keep himself from thinking through how "taboo" this was. They couldn't legally purchase sake until they were twenty and yet, Haruhi had it right there. "The vending machine just let you buy it? No I.D. or anything?"

"Nope." She snickered. "Taka and I just went up and bought it, nothing hard about it."

Yusuke couldn't help but chuckle, pressing his fingertips against his forehead. "Oh god, Haruhi. When I think I've figured you out, you surprise me by pulling sake out of your bag." His chuckling earning a sheepish smile from the girl.

"Alright, let's get it out then." Kiyotaka encouraged, the C Rep handing him a few of the bottles for him to open while she fiddled with trying to open the rest. All the while, Yusuke set up four sakazuki for the two to fill, his eyes falling onto the still somewhat stunned Vash.

"It doesn't bother you, right?" The baseball player found himself asking, seeming surprised but empathetic towards the F Rep's concern.

"Not at all," Vash said, waving him off. "I trust Haruhi and Kiyo, I know they wouldn't pull all this stuff out if it was going to be a whole thing." To which Yusuke only shrugged, figuring Vash knew what he was talking about.

When the bottles were open, each sakazuki was filled with the rice wine before being passed out. The F Rep found himself nervously swallowing back bile, concerned for what would happen if they did end up getting in trouble. And yet, he found himself eager to try the drink he'd never been allowed to taste while under his mother's watchful eye.

"To a relaxing time in Hakodate!" Haruhi said, lifting her cup. "Kanpai!"

"Kanpai!"

Vash cautiously watched, waiting until he saw the other three drinking the sake to throw back his own head and let the alcohol heavy drink into his own throat. It quickly began to run down his throat, leaving a slight burn as it went down. He clenched his eyes tightly together, somewhat surprised by the taste but he found himself somewhat soothed by it. It would take a while before the calming agent of a drink would kick in, but from the wide look in his blue eyes, Vash liked what he was tasting.

Haruhi was making a face, her nose scrunched up as she tried to swallow what was left in her throat. "Oh god, that's bitter!" She squeaked, shaking her head as if that would get the taste out of your mouth.

"Maybe you shouldn't try to swallow it all at once if you're not sure you're going to like it." Kiyotaka chastised, taking in another swallow of his own portion.

"Well, every adult I know drinks this stuff all the time! I figured it must've tasted amazing if they were going to pay for it!." She fired back, before looking at Vash. "Do you like it?"

He nodded, to the surprise of the three sitting at the table with him.

"...Huh," Haruhi muttered, passing him one of the little bottles. "Well, you can have mine, I don't want it anymore."

The mathematician took it, pausing only to make sure nobody else thought much of his taking more than his own share. Both of the C students seemed a little surprised, but the half smirk on the thin lips of Kiyotaka felt like the push he needed to comfortably enjoy the sake.

"Have you ever had this before?" Yusuke found himself asking, cocking an eyebrow. When Vash shook his head, the baseball player couldn't help but stare back in surprise. He wanted to say something, but he feared what Vash would do if he said anything against the actions of the F Rep.

So they let him drink, Haruhi and Kiyotaka having rationalize this by figuring it would help him calm down a little bit after a stressful time in the bath. Maybe it wouldn't hurt if he had a little help winding down.

They just didn't consider how much he was taking in and how much it would take to get the student into a different head space all together.

* * *

"Are you alright?"

Vash's cheeks had grown flushed, the once held together expression growing into an almost sly smile. He turned to look at Haruhi after she asked this, the almost glossy look in his eyes growing apparent right away. "No." He snickered, shaking his head. "I'm not alright."

The looks of surprise mixed with confusion were exchanged by the other three, Kiyotaka reaching to the center of the table to check the bottles. A somewhat surprised look filled the usually sharp emerald eyes as he found them all empty, glancing over to Yusuke to try and figure out how much he had. From the look given back to him, the baseball player hadn't had that much and the B Rep couldn't recall having that much either.

This left Vash. And by the look of it, he'd had quite a lot.

"Uhm, why? What's wrong?" Haruhi found herself asking, slightly on edge at the idea of him being completely honest.

"This whole trip has been wrong." Vash snickered, shaking his head quite rapidly. "I don't think you really knew how to plan a trip that everybody would love."

"What do you mean?" She asked, hazel eyes slightly dulling at the truth spilling from Vash's lips.

"You brought us all here but I've had a bad time!" The F Rep said, his words light and slurred. "A four hour awkward train ride, cold and gross food when all I wanted was decent food and then the highlight of your trip was a hot spring! I spent a whole week stressing out about going into a bath completely exposed because you guys can pretend it's only an exaggeration, but I'm not comfortable in my skin!"

"Vash, we've talked ab-" Haruhi started, her voice deflated.

"No, you've said things about it!" He interrupted, reaching for the sake bottles and pouting when he found all of them empty. "Just because you tell me to stop thinking like that doesn't mean I'll just start liking my body!"

Haruhi grew silent, looking down at the tatami mats while Vash sloppily attempted to shift, looking over to Kiyotaka. "And then there's you!"

"Me?" The B Rep muttered, giving the two sitting opposite him a questioning look.

"You make no sense, you know that? First you tell me you love me and give me my very first kiss and now, now you're just pretending like we're best friends and that you never said that. I was worried that you were just eyeing me for half of that bath and that the whole reason you don't want to love me anymore is because of what I look like! Do you have any idea what it feels like to be afraid of other people judging your body?"

Everybody was caught off guard, but things only became worse when Vash's shaking hands began to pull on the sash that kept his Yukata on him. It took longer than it should have, but soon enough, he'd managed to remove the sash and his body was quickly exposed.

A hand found itself on Yusuke's face, the baseball player finding himself humiliated at the sight while Haruhi found herself turning red. Was he regretting getting to know her and her friends?

"He isn't normally like... this." Haruhi quickly said.

Yusuke didn't know the two men very well, but it didn't take much to figure that the much shyer man he'd seen before was the true Vash Tanaka. This louder, more to the point person that stood in front of all of them was probably a product of the sake. "Is he being honest or is he just saying whatever?"

"I have no clue," Haruhi muttered, "but I'm leaning towards him being blunter than ever."

"Do you hate me because of this?" The two C students turned back to look at Vash who was practically in Kiyotaka's face, his hands pulling the sides of the Yukata away to expose everything that his underwear didn't cover. "Because you're breaking me into pieces because of this! Suddenly you won't tell me how you feel about me and if it's because I'm fat, you should just tell me that!"

The bright red color that had overtaken Kiyotaka's cheeks had Yusuke floored, the B Rep staring at Vash, wanting to scream so many things he'd been terrified to say and yet, he couldn't bear to say anything with Haruhi and Yusuke there or when Vash clearly wasn't in the right mind to remember anything he said.

"You haven't said anything about how you feel since you ABANDONED me!" Vash said, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against the taller male's chest. "You left me behind and now you just want to be friends."

Kiyotaka slowly rested one of his hands against Vash's back, the hand rubbing against his Yukata in an attempt to soothe the trembling mathematician. "You are not ready to talk about this." The B Rep's voice soft, almost paternal. "We'll talk about this when you've sobered up."

"I'm not drunk." Vash scowled, but relaxed at the sensation of Kiyo's hand.

"But I'm sure you're tired." Kiyotaka said, hoping he could coax the F Rep into getting into bed so they could avoid any more harsh truths from escaping his lips. Emerald eyes met Haruhi, the girl getting up and unrolling one of the futons for Vash to lay on. "I bet you'll feel better if you can get some rest."

He didn't seem all too eager, but Vash stood up when prompted to do so. One of his shaking hands tried to hold the B Rep's, but it looked less like genuine hand holding and instead looked more like Vash was trying to crush Kiyo's hand in his own.

"I'm really not tired." Vash complained as he was set down on the futon. He didn't seem to hesitate and was quick to lay down, his wide eyes never once leaving Kiyotaka's as he did so.

"It only doesn't feel like it." A soft voice replied, removing his thick framed glasses and setting them next to the futon. "Trust me, everything will feel so much better after you get some rest."

"...Stay right there till I'm asleep." Vash muttered, rolling over onto one of his sides. The commanding tone in his voice was something Kiyotaka wasn't familiar with, but a soft smile crept onto his lips anyhow as he nodded.

"I'll stay right here."

This left Haruhi and Yusuke in the slightly awkward position where they didn't quite know what to do, the girl sighing as she pulled her knees to her chest. "Maybe this was a mistake after all."

"So maybe Vash didn't have the best time, that doesn't mean everybody hated it." Yusuke shrugged. "I know I've been having a pretty good time."

"You have?"

"Yeah," Yusuke chuckled. "I was probably going to spend most of my break putting off my summer homework and playing video games or dicking around with the same old friends I've had since elementary school. But, instead of all that, I got to spend some time with you and I had the chance to get to know your friends."

"Some impression they've made." Haruhi snickered. "You've probably heard the drunk Vash talk more than the sober one."

"I think I'll stick to the sober one if I can though." Yusuke returned, finding himself laughing right along with her.

"But you really mean it?" Haruhi's hazel eyes bore into Yusuke's soul, obviously seeking some form of comfort. "You enjoyed it?"

"Well yeah, I don't get out of Sapporo much, so just getting out and seeing something different was a nice change of pace."

"I'm glad somebody liked this mess." She said, beginning to release her knees from her tight grip.

"I'm sure Tanaka appreciated it, I mean, there's no way we can be sure drunk Tanaka is saying only things that the sober one was thinking. I'm sure if you asked him about it tomorrow, you'd get an answer that wasn't as bad."

"Yeah, you're right." She smiled, feeling her heartbeat pick up at the sound of his encouragement. "Thank you for coming with, Yusuke. It's meant a lot to me."

"Of course." A slight smile slipped itself onto Yusuke's lips. "I wouldn't have skipped out on this for the world."

* * *

Oh god, his head was pounding.

Where did that sick feeling from his stomach come from?

Rolling over onto his side, Vash reached for his glasses, sliding them onto his face before trying to recall everything that happened last night. Everything felt like a blur, the man's hand resting against his forehead as he tried to figure out what his last memory could possibly be.

"Are you alright?"

At the sound of Kiyotaka's voice, Vash felt himself stiffen. Memories of the onsen flooded back and the concern about being seen became overwhelming, his now widened eyes meeting the concerned stare of the B Rep.

"I don't remember getting into bed," He muttered, unable to look into Kiyo's eyes and instead staring at the ceiling. "What happened after we left Yunokawa?"

"Well," The sudden deflation in his voice caught the F Rep off guard, "after we left the onsen, we came back here and shared sake with one another over a cold meal. And, er, I suppose you had more than you should've, because you became inebriated."

"I was drunk!?" Vash cried, sitting up in his futon only for the comforter to fall. He then realized his Yukata was open, exposing his body to the very aware Kiyotaka. His cheeks took on a strong red, the man on the verge of panic. "What happened!?"

"You started yelling. I suppose sake makes your blunter side come out, because you went after Haruhi and I with what we both assumed were truths that you would never have told us if you had been sober." Kiyotaka mumbled, slowly getting closer to Vash. "You brought up things I hadn't really focused on before."

"What kinds of things did I say!?" Vash blurted, slowly getting redder as panic began to set in. He had absolutely no idea what he had said or done and that terrified him the most.

But instead of saying anything, Kiyotaka's hands rested on the shorter male's shoulders, coaxing him into lying back down on the futon. "You talked mostly about insecurities and things that troubled you."

"I did?"

Kiyotaka had moved back a little bit, bending down and slowly pressing a kiss to Vash's stomach. This left the F Rep stunned, his face scarlet as he tried to figure out what in the world would possess him to do such a thing, especially to the part of his body that Vash hated the most. But before he could form words or even remember HOW to speak in general, Kiyotaka's lips were parted.

"I know I'm not always the most open, and I know I haven't been handling everything as well as I should be. It was wrong of me to take a step back like this without speaking to you about it. So I thought I would tell you that, I do love you, but I know I'm not in the right place right now to be a proper boyfriend. There are still things I need to do before I could even think about jumping into a relationship. But, if you think you could give me time, I know I'd come running for you the moment I believe I'm finally worthy of your love."

Vash was silent, meeting the emerald eyes of his lifelong companion and seeing how thought through that statement was. That first 'I love you' still meant something, that time still meant something to Kiyo just as it meant something to Vash.

"And I guess we've all been a little blind to your insecurities, but I don't want you to ever think that my affections are conditional. I didn't confess my love to you until after your body began to change, because it was never your physical appearance that determined my feelings for you. I adore the person you are and nothing about what you look like could ever change that fact."

For a moment, Vash couldn't think straight, just staring at the taller man, his eyes wide and questioning. Not only had he mentioned his confusion on Kiyotaka's feelings, but he'd talked about his crisis regarding his appearance.

"You really think that?" He felt a little weepy, the confusion having vanished and in its place a feeling of being understood and cared for.

"Of course I do." Kiyotaka nodded, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Vash's forehead, wishing he could kiss his lips but fearing that might take things a little too far. "I wouldn't lie to you about something so important."

His heart was pounding so hard he could hear it and his cheeks were no better, the F Rep looking down at the tatami mats below. "It's stupid, but I've worried about that for a long time. Maybe it's dumb to stress about something like body type, but I've always figured that what I looked like reflected on how much of a man people saw me as."

He couldn't believe he was admitting to all of this, especially to somebody who he feared wouldn't exactly understand or see a point to all of these emotions. And yet, here he was, spilling half of his insecurities in the span of five minutes and one sake fueled night.

"So there's a chance that we might be together?"

Kiyotaka nodded, a smile slowly spreading itself onto his lips. "With enough time, I think it's more than likely."

It felt strange, to be negotiating when or where the two of them could be together. But it also felt suiting for the two, since neither was ever quick to make a move or rush into something without having carefully thought through it first after what they'd been through in the past few months.

"We're back!"

Quickly grabbing at the sides of his Yukata and pulling them together, Vash turned to see Haruhi and Yusuke entering the room, both with bags bearing what the mathematician could only assume was supposed to be breakfast. Upon meeting his eyes however, Haruhi's cheer seemed to fade and in its place stood remorse. "How are you feeling?"

"I've been better, but all things considering, I think I'm pretty good." Vash returned, fiddling with his glasses. "But, about last night, I-"

"No, no, no! Don't worry about all that, I totally get it!" Haruhi blurted. "I mean, I should've thought more about all this before I planned a vacation. I didn't think about who I was planning this all for and that's why it blew up in my face!"

The apologetic look in her eyes was almost saddening, but Vash couldn't have understood why the whole thing tore Haruhi up from the inside out. "Well, you didn't have to plan it just for me. That's why we went here, right?"

"Er," Her voice trailed off.

"You were trying to plan this for me?" Now he really didn't understand it. She knew him, didn't she? If she wanted to spend time with him, leaving Sapporo wasn't always the best idea since the F Rep was a complete homebody.

"Well, sorta, kinda." Haruhi mumbled, pressing her fingers together. "I just thought that you've been so stressed lately and everybody says that trips to Hakodate always leave them super relaxed. I guess I stuck the two together and we came here! But, uh, it didn't help you at all, huh?"

"I wouldn't say that." He wouldn't say why either.

Not that he had to, since that shred of positivity seemed to do something for the girl as she approached the table, setting down her bag before looking back to Vash. "So this whole trip wasn't a complete failure? You enjoyed something?"

A quick glance to Kiyotaka.

"Well, yes."

"Oh thank god!" Haruhi moaned, exhaling a breath she hadn't realized she was holding onto. "But next year, I'm leaving it up to you to plan the trip, because my planning sucks!"

Most of the people in the room wouldn't argue this point, this response getting Vash to chuckle, shaking his head with fondness. "You've got yourself a deal."

* * *

"I'll see you later, alright?"

Vash found himself wanting to ask for a kiss, standing in front of his home as Kiyotaka turned to continue his own walk home. He couldn't bear to make the request though, not when the taller man had made it clear he wasn't ready for that next step yet. "Yep." He found himself saying instead, cursing himself mentally for the response.

"It's all going to get better from here." The B Rep shouted over his shoulder as he walked away, the sudden giddy nature of his voice catching Vash off guard.

What was that supposed to mean? Was their now defined relationship status supposed to make them feel like things could only improve? Because if that was the case, Vash wanted the better to come now instead of later.

But Kiyotaka was gone before he could ask, the student turning back and looking at his home. Well, the other added benefit about Haruhi's trip had been the chance to avoid being around his father.

Clicking his key into the door, Vash was greeted by the sound of paws hitting the floorboards, the mewling of Milk filling his ears.

"Did you miss me?" He found himself chuckling, reaching down and scooping up the kitten who pressed her forehead against his chest with a loud purr. "I missed you too." The paternal instinct in him swelling up with pride at the sound of her joy.

"Vash? Is that you?"

"Yes."

It must've been only his Mother then, relief filling him as he changed out his shoes before following the sound of his parent's voice. He found her in the kitchen, the surprisingly eager look in her eyes puzzling him. She dropped whatever she was doing, rushing over and pulling him tightly into her arms.

"Did something happen?" He asked, surprised at the sensation as Milk wriggled in his arms, anything but content at being sandwiched between two people.

"Let me show you," she nodded, gently gripping his arm and leading him to the room that his parents shared.

He went to ask just what was so important about their room, only to notice what she was talking about. While one side of the bedroom looked as it always did, the other side was basically empty, with all the furniture and objects that once filled it missing.

Walking into the room, he could feel his heart pounding out of his chest, a shaking hand reaching out and opening one of the dresser drawers only to find absolutely nothing. Everything from Gerard's side of the room was gone, as if he had never even existed to begin with.

"When did this happen?" His mouth felt dry.

"Yesterday. I'd been trying to figure out when he would get out of here and well, with a little help from Haruhi, I was able to get... that man... out of here without you having to suffer through his conniption fits at being thrown out."

Was that why she mentioned the trip was for him? Had Haruhi's goal been just to get him out of the house so Noko could kick Gerard out so he didn't have to witness what would probably be the more brutal of arguments from the two of them?

She really had been looking out for him this whole time.

"You're never going to have to face that awful father of yours ever again. From now all, you'll be able to walk into this door and know you're completely safe." His Mother smiled as she looked at the empty half of the room. "It'll just be the the two of us, so things might be a little different, but I know if we work hard enough, we'll thrive on our own.

"What do you think, honey? Are you ready to start a new chapter between just the two of us?"

A brand new chapter in his life, one without worrying about the parent who had neglected him for most of his life, who had destroyed his self esteem as a small child and who had made him fear his true self in his teens. It was sobering to imagine a life without the man who had made him so miserable and yet, Vash couldn't deny he was thrilled to start a chapter where home would finally become a completely safe place.

"I can't wait to start."

* * *

"Haruhi? Can you please come down for a second?"

Pulling the headphones out of her ears, an exhausted Haruhi Seto slowly pulled herself off of her bed at the sound of her mother's voice. It wasn't exactly late, since the clock had barely hit twenty one as the fifteen year old began heading down the stairs, trying to ignore the cold feeling of her still damp hair.

"What is it?" Haruhi found herself asking as her heel rested against the bottom step. She looked around for a moment, only to notice her mother sitting with Noko Tanaka and Misae Nensho, the three seeming to have been discussing things over tea and some of Chizuru's homemade cookies.

Her lips quickly fell into a concerned pout, the girl looking from her own mother to the other two, the panic of seeing the whole Mom Council gathered together beginning to claw at her. "Is something wrong?" She didn't remember doing anything of note lately, especially since she had been closer to the boys than ever in recently. "I didn't do anything, did I?"

"Oh, of course not!" Chizuru said, motioning for the C Rep to sit beside her, which the girl promptly did. "We were just wondering if we could ask a huge favor of you."

"A favor?"

"I was just hoping I could get Vash out of the house for a night or two." Haruhi found herself somewhat stunned by the softness in the voice of Noko, turning to see the almost broken look in her eyes. "I'm sure either Vash or Kiyotaka told you about what happened between Vash and his father."

"Yeah." The subject hadn't ever left her. She worried about Vash constantly and any time she knew he was home, she'd either find an excuse to visit or would be harassing him with text messages to make sure nothing happened to him. Any moment of silence was enough to warrant at least a phone call and at most, a frantic excuse and quite a bit of knocking on the door. She was sure he was beginning to grow sick of her, but Haruhi knew she couldn't leave him alone for a minute. Not if leaving him be meant seeing him broken by an awful parent one more time.

Noko took in a deep breath, her hands beginning to shake before Misae rested a hand atop her shoulder in the hopes of reminding her that this was a safe space. "I've decided to divorce my husband, because I can't keep Vash in a place that makes him feel unsafe and I cannot be married to somebody willing to put my child in danger, let alone somebody who would dare to hurt him. But I know how Gerard can be, so I was hoping I could get Vash out of the house so we can negotiate the divorce without him. With hope, by the end of the next weekend, he'll be out of the house and we can start fresh."

"And that's the favor?" Haruhi asked, unable to keep from offering Noko a hesitant smile, the memory of a hurt Vash keeping her from exploding with joy.

"Well, yes." Noko nodded. "I figured, since you've got your summer break in a week, maybe you could convince the boys to go on a trip with you."

"A trip?" The excitement in Haruhi's voice more than a little obvious as she perked up at the idea of leaving the stuffy town and mundane school life.

"All of you have been through a lot these past few months." Misae said. "So, the three of us figured we would pool together a spending fund for you. That way, you can pick a place for the three of you to go to and not have to worry about money."

All expenses paid and she got to pick it? Haruhi couldn't believe this was happening, but, she knew there wasn't a chance that these women would lie to her. So many different places she wanted to check out and yet, she'd have to try and keep it all inclusive so she could make sure Vash and Taka would agree to come with her in the first place.

But would it just be the three of them?

"Could I," she began, almost seeming to give up halfway through before shaking her head and finding her resolve. "Would it be okay if I asked somebody else to come with?"

The three women looked over to the C Rep, noticing how her cheeks began to dust themselves in pink before Chizuru snickered. "Is this about that Kobayashi boy you go on and on about whenever you get the chance?"

"Maybe." Haruhi's hazel eyes fell to her side, stirring hesitantly

"Oh my, could it be possible that our little Haruhi has fallen in love?" Noko teased, beginning to laugh when she saw just how this changed the color of Haruhi's cheeks from light pink to a deep scarlet. "You look just like Vash when I asked him what Kiyotaka really meant to him."

"You do not want to see how embarrassed Kiyo can get when I mention Vash at all." Misae added, getting Noko's laughter to grow louder, the Nensho woman quick to join her.

"That reminds me!" Chizuru piped up. "I was right!"

"You were right about what?" The international business woman asked.

"Back when we first met Vash and Noko, I told you there was a married couple somewhere in the three of them! Back then, I figured that would involve Haruhi," The girl in question squirming slightly at the idea of marrying either of the two boys, unable to see them in any sort of romantic context. "But technically, I'll still be right about there being a married couple when Vash and Kiyotaka get married!"

"Marriage might be a little far." Noko muttered, hoping Chizuru did remember that her child was still only fifteen and not exactly well versed on the topic of being in love. She then looked back to Haruhi, the teenager still trying to wipe away the thought of marrying her best friends. "But, Haruhi, do you think you could manage to pull them out of the town for a night or two? Just so I could start the process of giving Vash a safer home life without him having to go through watching it?"

Haruhi wanted nothing more than to see Gerard Taylor pack his bags and end up barred from seeing Vash anymore. Since childhood, she'd silently hated the man and had done her best to hold in just how much loathing she felt for him when around Vash while screaming her heart out about how she saw him when around her parents or Kiyotaka, both situations being ones where the people she was screaming to only agreed with her wholeheartedly and would almost always take part in cursing Gerard.

If she could pull him out of the home while the journey to remove Gerard from his life began, then she wanted nothing more than to pull him out of that home.

A smile slowly crept itself onto her lips as the girl nodded. "Of course, Noko, I'll do my best to make sure he has the best time possible!"

"Then there's only one more thing I'd like to ask of you."

"Oh?"

"Please, no matter what, try not to tell Vash why you need to get him out of here. I'd rather this not weigh on him. Just please, don't let him find out what's going to happen while he's out with you."

"I promise."


End file.
